[rjvin]

Cool, but I don't know how this applies to things that aren't as measurable as musical ability. What about more intangible things like creative or critical thinking? Also, the violin hasn't changed in hundreds of years, which means the value of the time you spend getting good at it will never depreciate. How does that change with something like computer programming?

[cwp]

Huh? Musical ability is about as intangible as it gets. And programming, once you get past the noob stage of mastering syntax, doesn't depreciate either.

[RougeFemme]

I'm not a music guru by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't think musical ability is completely measurable. Well, yes the technical ability to read and play the notes and apply the other notation is measurable. And teachers can do that well. But I think the elite players go beyond that with their technique and, where appropriate, emotion.

[rjvin]

I guess what I was referring to was more that, if you wanted to measure someone's musical ability, you can look at the hours they practiced as something that correlates. Which is what the researchers did. For skills like creativity or critical thinking, what hard number would you look at? I don't know, and I have a feeling that if you looked at time spent, you wouldn't get these same results.

[yakiv]

Even if you can't measure someone's creative thinking ability very well, that doesn't mean that it can't improve with practice.