study on how to learn skills faster

[Tsavo]

http://www.iflscience.com/brain/researc ... wice-fast/

“What we found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row,” said lead researcher Pablo Celnik, from Johns Hopkins University, in a statement.

[Dresseur]

Have been crazy busy at work, or would have commented sooner. I'm fascinated by how people learn. I think that this highlights why it's so important to try something different, or try something outside of your comfort zone to stretch the limits of what you know/feel. If I'm stuck on something, I exaggerate one way or another to feel something different - which is the reconsolidation idea they are talking about..

[piedmontfields]

Tsavo, did you read The Talent Code? (if not, it is a somewhat different perspective on effective learning/practice)

[Tsavo]

No I haven't PF. I will keep it in mind.

[kande50]

Tsavo, did you read The Talent Code? (if not, it is a somewhat different perspective on effective learning/practice)

If this cheatsheet is accurate, my take on it is that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. http://www.kevinhabits.com/1-page-cheat ... lent-code/

I think the first concept (practicing variations on the target skill) may be similar to what positive reinforcement trainers have figured out about training plans. I used to get stuck repeatedly reinforcing a few behaviors because I was trying to increase the reinforcement history to make them stronger before I moved on. But what I was missing is that the concept of making behaviors stronger by developing a strong reinforcement history likely applies to behaviors that are on cue, rather than behaviors that are still being shaped. And even then, the way to make a behavior stronger is to put it on cue, proof it, and then put it on a variable rate of reinforcement before the subject starts thinking that a particular behavior is the one true answer rather than one of many possible answers.

So what I needed to learn to do was to move on and continue to develop the behavior until it was finished enough to put it on a cue, and then I needed to make it stronger, but not by continuing to reinforce it all the time but by putting it on a variable rate of R and then eventually into a behavior chain.

I think this all ties in with practicing variations on target behaviors, as well as with the more general "Talent Code" concept of focus and practice.

[StraightForward]

Tsavo, did you read The Talent Code? (if not, it is a somewhat different perspective on effective learning/practice)

I read it a few weeks ago. I think it's a similar idea - practice at the edge of/outside of your competence area.

I find the concepts hard to apply to riding though, at least outside of having a schoolmaster to learn on, because I'm training myself and my horse simultaneously, and her training experience takes precedence over mine. However, I do find value in doing a day of "jumping". I put that in quotes because we don't really, or barely, jump at this stage. Sometimes it's just ground poles or cones to ride through using more two-point and focusing more on moving through a course instead of the micro-management that comes with dressage practice. This improves her forward-thinking, and improves my balance and feel, and makes us both more adjustable.

[piedmontfields]

OK, I admit that I'm in the middle of this book, but my take away is that small specific practice steps need to be *highly accurate/specific* in order to build neural pathways towards excellence. To me, this is a little different than "exaggerations" or "approximations" (which I know can also be useful in learning).

Maybe since I studied music in the way distant past I was able to think of this in terms of combining note content with technique and artistry/expression. In dressage, I'd think about, for example, building each step of correct half pass (if my horse were ready for that), rather than half-passing all the way across the arena (which would just be playing the notes). I'm not sure I always agree with this in horse training, but it is interesting to consider.

[Chisamba]

Well just today I had an interesting teaching experience. My rider was trying a new horse. A project. Western trained trail horse. She is a dressage rider.

I rode first and warned her that she had to ride with a draped rein as anytime you took contact the horse very politely stopped.

She had several very abrupt stops. I asked what she was doing and of course she tried to take a contact. I finally yelled at her because she was being pretty unfair to the horse. Yes bad me, I admit to yelling.

My point wrt this thread is that when she rode her own horse half an hour later she was able to achieve a lightness of contact and bearing that we had struggled with to this point.

So perhaps if you experience something different, it opens you to new possibilities

[Ponichiwa]

OK, I admit that I'm in the middle of this book, but my take away is that small specific practice steps need to be *highly accurate/specific* in order to build neural pathways towards excellence. To me, this is a little different than "exaggerations" or "approximations" (which I know can also be useful in learning).

Maybe since I studied music in the way distant past I was able to think of this in terms of combining note content with technique and artistry/expression. In dressage, I'd think about, for example, building each step of correct half pass (if my horse were ready for that), rather than half-passing all the way across the arena (which would just be playing the notes). I'm not sure I always agree with this in horse training, but it is interesting to consider.

Yep. Years of arpeggios and articulation studies to get to the point where you can throw down a great solo.

[kande50]

So perhaps if you experience something different, it opens you to new possibilities

Perfect, except for the yelling, although as a student I was never phased when I got yelled at because I was very motivated to learn, and knew the yelling was to try to get through to me, for the horse's sake. I thought of yelling as putting emphasis on what was most important.