The learning context directly influences how we learn. We make sense of the surrounding environment, providing us with stimuli and, in turn, feedback on our efforts to generate the relevant actions. The type of motor tasks, how to execute them, the way we receive the information, the model we imitate, the prevailing social nature, and our own expectations impact us when facing a learning situation.
We process the information we receive and experience it differently. As well as possessing different intelligences (spatial, musical, kinesthetic, mathematical, etc.), we process information in a different way depending on whether we prioritize the visual, auditory, or kinesthetic modality.
Our thoughts and emotions shape the learning process. Metacognition, i.e., the ability to think about how we learn, is an important aspect that influences the acquisition process, especially to know how to interpret the initial frustration and emotions that appear diverting the concentration from the objective.
The phenomenon of the learning plateau
This refers to the period of temporary stagnation in the learning process during which we do not evolve, or do so in a very limited way. Generally, in most of our skiing, we apply known motor and strategic routines but when we face a new situation, we tend to apply strategies used in previous situations if they were similar to the current challenge, otherwise, we will have to apply a different strategy.
If we do not employ another approach, then we will be trapped in a plateau, in a temporary ‘deadlock’ in which we are using the same tool without managing to solve it. At being stuck in a plateau, we block more effective responses because we seek to apply old solutions to solve new conditions. To resolve it, whether it is a technical execution error, a modification in the adaptation to a terrain, speed, or traffic condition, the best is to take a break, step back, pause, and look at the situation from another perspective. In this way, our conscious thoughts are diminished and allow our subconscious to emerge.
Focusing on the problem induces cortical inhibition whereby, faced with the stress of the moment, we focus only on dwelling on the same thing, blocking creative solutions, as well as increasing anxiety. It is all due to being stuck in our own ways of thinking, or being unwilling or unable to change.
George Leonard, writer and master of Aikido, proposes that most people who do not achieve mastery in a discipline is due to the inability to resist the frustration of the plateau. For this author, learning is not a linear and steady progression but rather much of it is made up of continuous plateaus with certain advances leading to the next plateau and so on. Under this view, while learning, most of the time we would find ourselves traversing plateaus in our competence or incompetence interchanged with occasional progress.
Our impatience to surpass the learning plateaus is so disturbing that, instead of adopting an attitude of constancy in the activity that we perform or wish to learn, we are trapped in one of the following states:
- In the ‘dilettante‘ or amateur state we would take up a new activity with some enthusiasm but give up after stagnating at the first or second plateau.
- In the ‘obsessive‘ or insistent state, we struggle to overcome the plateau in which we find ourselves using all our strength without listening to our instructor and, after using all our energies, end up abandoning generally due to an injury caused by our overexertion.
- In the ‘fit‘ or competent state we are content to achieve a degree of competence at which we ‘get by‘ and do not try to improve further because we consider it ‘good enough‘.
Leonard’s conclusion is that most people who take up a new activity tend to adopt an attitude of dilettante, obsessive, or proficient without reaching mastery because they get stuck in an obsession with immediate results. On the other hand, if we do not fall into the search for hasty achievements, replacing them with conscious and permanent practices, the tendency will be to reach satisfactory objectives. This attitude is characterized with our ability to accept learning plateaus, moving away from dependence on immediate results.
The period of confusion
The confusion stage is a learning moment located between a structure that is ceasing to be and a new one that has not yet been completely assimilated. It is a time of uncertainty and hesitation as to whether what is being learned is correct, even if it is not perceived as such.
It is a period in which what we have learned is not yet consolidated because there is not yet a defined behavior. The ‘new’ or the ‘better’ execution is not complemented, generating the anxieties of a change in our sensations and our perceptions of what is different. It is the transition between one way of performing the technique and a better one; a period of risk, of crisis, and of not continuing to try.
The period of confusion is about what no longer feels familiar and the new way of skiing, i.e., a new sensation that confuses the familiar. It is the hesitation perceived as a risk, the resistance in the face of the change to come because we do not yet know how to move, the fear of losing our balance of the known motor structures and changing them, mechanically and cautiously, for a new and a better behavior.
This momentary state of disorientation must be overcome in order not to fall into the incapacity generated by not knowing what to do due to our confusion caused by unfamiliar bodily sensations. It is advisable to surmount, as soon as possible, our worry of abandoning known sensations, and to appropriate a new motor behavior that tends, initially, to tensions and defensive actions.
At this moment, if we decide to improve by modifying our skiing, it is not easy to determine whether what we are trying to change is positive or not because our new sensations generate confusion. Different motor habits become difficult to remember so this period appears as a momentary defense mechanism. In this instance, we tend to feel frustrated at not being able to tolerate it and it is basically because we do not want to dare to go out of our comfort zone.
This period appears when confronted with something different, our first impression will seem diffuse. When facing it repeatedly, the new will cease to be novel and soon what was confusing will become familiar, then, to go through the instance of confusion it is essential to be open to the new and the unknown.
The critical learning period
The critical period of learning is the limited time in which we experience the ideal and simultaneous composition of psychological, motor, and sensory factors that contribute to generate an appropriate learning behavior, which makes a certain impression.
In modern psychology the term imprinting is used to refer to learning in a certain period due to increased sensitivity to external stimuli. For example, in our initial beginner’s phase, unfamiliar stimuli cause the activation of sensitivity, making an impression that we will remember for a long time.
One type of imprinting in learning is through visual impressions which generate memory of an event or experience that shape particular neural networks. Learning by imprinting is considered to be learning by exposure in which we are ‘exposed’ to the context for the first time. It is a certain time, at a certain stage of our learning process, in which an experience results in a transformation. For example, in the initial stages, our experience of sliding is imperative for subsequent performances. Failure to experience stimuli in this period may have limited the development of our present skills.
