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Being a Service Technician and Memory Systems

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Being a Service Technician and Memory Systems

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Before I was accepted to UW Madison, I was working full time at US Cellular as a Service Technician. If something went wrong with your phone, you would come to me, and I would make it better. This job required an incredible amount of knowledge of each specific phone manufacturer, the cellular network, the billing system, each software and hardware system used by each phone we sold, as well as general knowledge of the retail services we provided at the store. What I loved most about this job, was that while we frequently saw some of the same problems on a consistent basis, we were provided with new challenges every day. This job gives some great examples of the different memory systems that we utilize. Using the billing system allowed us to fix service issues, such as when someone wanted to activate an alternative phone, order a new phone, or when we needed to reset the communication of their phone with our network. These tasks were highly procedural, involving numerous screens we were required to enter passwords to and click through in a very specific manner to achieve the right result, removing the battery from the phone before resetting the communication of the phone and our switching stations, then reprovisioning the device by entering a code into the dialpad. With practice of these tasks, this information was stored in our procedural memory system, responsible for nonconscious automatic responses. For new issues of which we had not previously encountered, such as a particular hardware defect with a certain type of phone that had a faulty antenna and therefore could not make or receive calls (I'm looking at you Samsung), these experiences would be stored in our episodic memory, responsible for recalling events, these memories would include what the problem was, and how we were able to solve it. This particular issue we were presented with so many times, however, that it quickly transferred itself to our semantic memory, responsible for knowledge of fact, the fact being that these phones simply would not work regardless of what we did to try to fix them since the underlying issue was one of the phone's design. It took over six months and a lot of us prodding our managers and corporate for them to officially issue a recall, but we like to think our particular store (which was the highest volume store in the company) had the most influence on this decision being made.

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I have been working at the restaurant Angelo's in Monona now for about two years. While I have worked as a dishwasher, bartender, fry cook, and bar back before, serving is it's own unique experience. When I began working at the restaurant, the most difficult part of my job to master was the use of the computer system in which we enter orders and work our register. The managers began teaching me my job through part practice, allowing me to practice individual components of the skill of serving before having to help tables. This reduced the complexity of the skill, providing an opportunity for me to learn our computer system without the urgency and timing necessary for actually serving diners. With my experience in customer service, this also avoided the repetition involved in the simple parts of the task, such as taking the order, and delivering the food to the table. Once I had gained decent enough proficiency with the computer system, I felt confident in assisting tables, and they allowed me to start working real shifts. However, my skill as a server was quickly challenged when I was asked to work my first Friday fish fry. The volume of guests on Fridays is much higher than the rest of the week, which made timing and flow absolutely critical to providing a good customer experience. It was only through whole practice, or the practice of the entire skill by working these Fridays that I was able to master the timing of getting appetizers made and taken to the table, all of the food entered correctly and timely, and recognizing when would be appropriate to check back in on these tables.
I am now responsible for training new employees to do the same, and have told every new trainee when they have their first Friday fish fry shift, that it is trial by fire, because that whole practice is truly the best way to learn how to get the timing down. I always make sure to encourage them that none of us had a good first Friday, that they will get much better with experience, and of course, that we all have their back.

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Augmented Feedback and Definitely Not Wanting to Watch Myself Workout

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Augmented Feedback and Definitely Not Wanting to Watch Myself Workout

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There may be people out there that enjoy using a mirror to workout in front of... I am 100 percent not about that life at all. I have spent seven years buying workout equipment so that I can do my workouts at home. I have a door frame pull-up bar, a 200 lb punching bag, and dumbbells ranging from 10 to 90 lbs. I most certainly don't mind working out with other people, I just like the convenience of having my own equipment, it definitely makes it difficult for me to make excuses about working out. A point of time arose where I knew I was ready to increase the amount of weight I was using for bicep exercises, as I had always told myself that when I could consistently do 15 reps a set for bicep curls throughout a whole workout it would be time to increase the weight. Obviously this is an expensive endeavor when you are reaching 90 lbs since each dumbbell typically costs a dollar a pound. So I was lucky enough to find a set of those 90 lb dumbbells at a used workout equipment store. I brought them home and excitedly tried them out. Just from task intrinsic feedback that was naturally available to me while performing the bicep curl, I recognized there were some issues with form that might need to be addressed with swinging these massive pieces of metal around. I could feel my wrists being violently abused by the motion, my back swaying as the weights rose and fell, and unnecessarily engaging my body to throw the weights back up again once they were at my sides. I did not anticipate my first attempt at essentially lifting an 180 lb person to be graceful, and I tried to remain cognizant of the inherent feedback I had received while performing the skill so that I could focus on improving these components the next time I tried. Some time passed, and as I gained more practice with these weights, my stability muscles allowed me to remain more upright with less sway, I became more capable of stopping the swing of the arm at the bottom of the motion, and my wrist strength improved so that I could better control the weights. It was working, but I still felt like something was off. I accompanied a friend of mine to their gym one day and decided to go for an arm and back workout. I cringed as we walked into the area with the dumbbells and I saw full length mirror extending across all of the walls. I shrugged and figured I'd just deal with it. My workout was going well, starting with some shoulder exercises, when I got to bicep curls, the weight rack they were on was right next to the mirror, so it made sense to do that set standing next to the mirror, since I did not need that amount of weight for any other exercise. I began the bicep curls and immediately recognized the importance of augmented feedback. The swing I thought I had addressed in my home workouts was most certainly still there, and was evident from the bend I saw in my legs, to the reaction of my torso as the weights went up and down again. This information provided about the task supplemental to the inherent feedback I had been gaining in my home workouts made an incredible amount of difference. I began to focus on each characteristic of the motion so that I could better control it, and even dropped the amount of weight I was using to perform the dumbbell curls for a little while to make sure that I could maintain consistent form. I had experienced a number of wrist injuries after getting the 90 lb weights and wish that I had recognized the role this augmented feedback could have provided me sooner, so that I could have addressed the smoothness of the movement more quickly.

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I absolutely love disc golf. It is an excellent excuse to be outside in a park on a nice day, and spend some time with friends, When I was first introduced to the sport I knew very little of the intricacies involved with what I had thought was just throwing a disc, but I soon recognized the considerable amount of nuance. First, you need a variety of discs depending on the range of shot you are attempting to make on the hole, generally with designations as a distance-driver, fairway-driver, mid-range, and putter. Once I became familiar with the particular disc used in each scenario based on distance from the hole, I was intrigued by the four separate numbers found on the discs (pictured below).  Some research and I found that these numbers were rating systems for speed (rate through air), glide (loft during flight), turn (tendency of the disc to bank to the right), and fade (tendency of the disc to hook left). This was extraordinary to me, but as I developed my skills and technique with the game, I began to understand the usefulness of these numbers.
Using Gentile's  Two-Stage Model of learning, in the 1st stage, it was important that I gain proficiency at simply throwing the disc starting with my arm extended laterally away from my body and flicking it forward with little arm movement up and down, but a great amount of wrist movement. This related to determining the appropriate movement coordination patterns, discriminating between environmental features, such as avoiding trees, and the direction of the wind, and exploring various movement possibilities through trial and error, such as the best stance to perform each throw, and recognizing that when using the putter at close range, a normal medial to lateral frisbee toss was more effective. Since throwing the disc is a closed skill, the second stage of Gentile's model involved refining movement patterns to produce them correctly, consistently and efficiently, which is when the four rating systems began to make sense to me. As a novice, I had relied on visual feedback to see adjustments I needed to make in my throwing technique, now that I had gained some expertise in the skill, I began to rely more on proprioception, and the way the disc felt as it left my hand, knowing nearly immediately if I needed to run for the dense forest on the edges of the course because the disc was going to hook deep into the woods. Once I recognized characteristics of my throw, I went back to the store and used those four rating systems to find discs that would best fit my technique, allowing the disc to level itself out in the air, experience less hook left or right, and fly straighter. This really does support the idea of the stages of learning, since finding appropriate discs in the first stage of this process would have done nothing for my development, since I did not yet have a consistent throwing pattern. If you haven't tried playing the game, I highly recommend it!

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Individual Differences and A Very Tiny Me

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Individual Differences and A Very Tiny Me

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So by no means was I a large individual in high school (I'm third from the left in the front row of the picture at the bottom of this). A number of my friends wanted to join the wrestling team freshman year, so I decided to do the same. Wrestling was a particularly difficult sport for me considering the great number of factors that make a good wrestler. When looking at my ability, things unmodifiable with practice, there were most certainly some short comings. In terms of body configuration, I was of average height for my age, which I found to be somewhat of a disadvantage since those who were shorter in my weight class tended to also be stronger, and had much greater access to my legs to take me down. Another similarly harmful characteristic, is that I am not by any means an aggressive person. This trait does not lend itself well to a sport focused on wrecking another person's world for a couple of minutes, which was recognized in my great success to win matches in practices against my teammates and friends, but great difficulty doing the same in actual competition. When it was just against my friends, I didn't feel like I needed to be aggressive, just strategic, this did not set me up for a great amount of success in matches where things can get brutal. My motor abilities were not terrible, but being new to the sport, I would frequently forget the best approaches for taking someone down based on the particular opportunities that arose. Having a decent reaction time, but difficulty knowing about the reaction you should make definitely set me back a little.
Luckily, skills can be modified with practice, and I dedicated a considerable amount of time to being a better wrestler. I memorized and practiced the best strategies to use within each specific situation one finds themselves in during a match, and nearly made varsity by pinning the current varsity athlete for my weight class until the last few seconds of our match when he was able to flip me. Overall I believe that wrestling taught me that at the end of the day our abilities do not need to limit us if we focus on the development of skill. I realized that wrestling was not about who was bigger, it was about who was better.