Tuesday, April 18, 2006

On the Development of Skills from Conscious to Unconscious and Habitual

Just noting a few more things related to laddered skills.

It's not enough to know what a skill involves. It's not enough to put in a lot of effort and think you'll suddenly be able to do it. A skill has to be developed through practice, and this takes time.

Over time, the performance of skills becomes more unconscious and habitual, but their initial development takes a lot of conscious effort.

Not only in actually 'performing' the skill, but to make sure you think of doing it at the required times.

Part of the effort may also involve overriding existing habitual skills occupying the same territory. New skills aren't added into a vaccumm.

What I hope to get into next is a discussion of why cognitive abilities are laddered skills, and how this viewpoint effects how we think should think about them.

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