The Expertise of Professional Actors: A review of recent research

Abstract

This review summarizes recent research into the mental processes of professional actors. A number of studies employing various paradigms have provided converging evidence that actors regard their jobs as doing "for real" whatever the playscript calls upon the character to do (e.g. threatening someone, flattering someone, ridiculing someone, etc.). The role acquisition process appears to take place in two distinct stages. First, the actors extract from the script the underlying intentions of the characters, a procedure that often calls for extensive analysis, because the intentions in well-written plays are rarely explicit or obvious. The deep processing involved calls upon such learning factors as perspective taking, problem solving, elaboration, causal attribution, distinctiveness, and overlearning. Following the analytical phase, actors rehearse and perform their roles by using an approach the authors call "active experiencing" which involves activation of those cognitive-emotive-motor processes inherent in all genuine human transactions. This article also reviews studies that specifically examined the nature of actors' on-stage emotions, the contributions of actors' physical movements to performance, and certain aspects of professional acting expertise that may lead the way to increased understanding of human cognition.

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