PDFE #8

How did your performance progress in terms of the stages of learning described in chapter 7? Did your experience match what would be expected based on the information presented in the book? As you progressed, what happened to your performance (in terms of stages of learning) when you tried to tie the knot upside down?
During class on Monday, October 23, I participated in a lab exercise with my partner, Bethani Spraggins that dealt with motor stages of learning for simple skills. We practiced learning how to tie a bowline knot into string. The purpose of this lab was to learn the motor stages of learning for simple skills and to observe the performance characteristics associated with the stages of learning. The first few tries of tying the bowline knot I had to refer often to the instructions and talk myself through the instructions and tying the knot. I was in the verbal-cognitive stage, because I was trying to get the general idea of the skill, I devoted much attention to how to complete my goal at hand, and I had to figure out what to do and what not to do to execute my goal. After being in the Verbal- cognitive stage for a few trails I was able to tie the knot without looking at the directions as often, but my knots still were not completely correct, some left too small of a loop and some left too big of a loop. This stage is the motor stage and I was in this stage for about 3 to 4 trials. My movements became a lot quicker and more accurate at tying the knot. I reached the autonomous stage and was able to automatically do the knot without looking at the directions and doing it by memory. Bethani went through the same stages as I did at about the same rate. When I tried to do the knot upside down, I had to start back at the verbal cognitive stage but it did not take as long to get to the autonomous stage because I had already practiced and knew how to do the motions and tie the knot.