Psychological approaches to skill acquisition

In psychology, skill refers to any competent, rapid and accurate performance, including a wide range of mental activities. All skilled performance requires mental activity; but whereas overt actions are an essential part of the performance of sensori‐motor skills, their role in mental skills is incidental. Psychological approaches (behavioural and neuro‐physiological) have led to increased understanding of the processes involved in the acquisition and performance of skilled behaviour, and made possible the determination of factors likely to facilitate — or impede — the acquisition of particular skills. A survey follows of some research in this field.