Auf die Rückmeldung kommt es an

Stephen J. Dubner und Seven D. Levitt berichten in ihrer Kolumne Freakonomics in der New York Times vom 7. Mai über die Ergebnisse, die der Psychologe Anders Ericsson und seine Kollegen bei der Erforschung von Könnertum und Leistungsfähigkeit erzielt haben. Die Botschaft ist einfach: Übung macht den Meister – nur braucht der Übende Rückmeldung über den Erfolg seines Tuns. Deshalb kann man ruhig zu alten Chirurgen gehen, sollte aber bei älteren Medizinern anderer Fachrichtung vorsichtig sein:

Ericsson has noted that most doctors actually perform worse the longer they are out of medical school. Surgeons, however, are an exception. That's because they are constantly exposed to two key elements of deliberate practice: immediate feedback and specific goal-setting.

The same is not true for, say, a mammographer. When a doctor reads a mammogram, she doesn't know for certain if there is breast cancer or not. She will be able to know only weeks later, from a biopsy, or years later, when no cancer develops. Without meaningful feedback, a doctor's ability actually deteriorates over time. Ericsson suggests a new mode of training. »Imagine a situation where a doctor could diagnose mammograms from old cases and immediately get feedback of the correct diagnosis for each case,« he says. »Working in such a learning environment, a doctor might see more different cancers in one day than in a couple of years of normal practice.«