# data[].attributes.body
I recently have put my own fine motor skills to the test. I decided to embroider my own patches for a jean jacket in honor of Captain Marvel in time for the new movie, Avengers: Endgame. I had to use microscopic precision while working as quickly as possible so that I could meet the deadline. It was encouraging to know that before this, I had tested my fine motor skills in lab. To test, manual dexterity we used the Purdue pegboard which involved both finger dexterity and aiming both of which are important when embroidering. Finger dexterity involves the ability to manipulate small objects and aiming involves accurate hand movements to targets under speeded conditions (Lecture slides, Individual Differences, 2019). I did pretty well with these activities, which makes sense since I was able to finish my jacket patches in time for opening night.

# data[].attributes.body
I used to play soccer and being able to use both feet accurately was very useful, especially once I injured one of my legs. I had to have surgery and then physical therapy, followed with more surgery and more physical therapy. I know the ropes of recovery pretty well. Once I finally became strong enough, I used bilateral transfer to increase performance in my non-injured leg and remind it how to do more advanced activities. This even included things abled people think of as easy, or don't have  to think about at all because they come naturally. When I began  to advance my therapy into jumps or agility, I would first perform the activities with my non-injured leg to remind my body how it is supposed to feel and look. I would practice a few times and then perform the activity with the injured leg. This helped me immensely. We saw similar improvement in opposite limbs in Lab 8 where we observed bilateral transfer from our preferred-practiced limb onto our non-preferred limb. could have resulted from the preferred limb gaining cognitive information while practicing that was then available to the individual when using either limb (Pressbooks, Bilateral Transfer, 2019). It could also be explained by the general motor program theory. When we program a general motor program, muscle selection is only a parameter; using one limb to complete a task uses the same general motor program as the other limb (Pressbooks, Bilateral Transfer, 2019). I chose the following gif because it really felt like my injured limb was learning and coping my other limb.

# data[].attributes.body
If an individual encounters a situation while driving where they need to react within a split second to avoid an accident, it is imperative that they make the right choice. When reacting to a stimulus, we must choose a response. S-R compatibility describes the degree that a stimulus and the following response are associated in a natural way. This compatibility pairs with shorter reaction times as the response pairs better with the stimulus. For example, turning the driving wheel left in order to make the car go left is a natural reaction in which the S-R compatibility to support that reaction is crucial. We practiced the change in reaction time based on compatibility in lab 1 and the use of Hick's Law; it states that reaction time increases by a near-constant amount every time the number of response options doubles. By using the equation (CRT)=a+b[log2(N)] where CRT is choice reaction time (reaction time with no options), we were able to demonstrate that reaction times were reduced considerably when working with compatible options. There isn’t a lot of time to react to such dangerous stimuli, so the reaction time needs to be cut down as much as possible by having cars turn the same way that the driving wheel is turned.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Drivers Avoiding Accidents - Compilation #1 (Quick Reactions, Amazing Saves)

# data[].attributes.body
In order to get around a defender in soccer, sometimes a player must trick their opponent into thinking they are going one way but actually go the other. This attempt at juking them out relies on the opponent's psychological refractory period being long enough for them to successfully get around them. A psychological refractory period describes the time that an individual takes to process the incoming stimulus around them and then react to it. However, when talking about juking a player out, they first must process and react to the first direction the other player was going and then start processing and reacting to the second 'trick' direction. This can be very beneficial to a soccer player trying to get around an opponent.

# data[].attributes.body
For an athlete, it is important to master skills during practice as well as possible. It is also important to make the most out of practice, especially if there isn't a lot of time, like before a game for example. In order to do this, the drills set up in practice must produce the most retention of that skill and ability to apply it to other tasks. We experienced this first hand in lab as we were separated into assigned groups that learned keyboard sequences  either in blocked sessions or random ones. We saw that the blocked group recorded faster times during the practices, but when we were tested on our retention  and transfer the random group did better. This is due to contextual interference that is more prevalent in  the random task; it allows the individual to compare and contrast tasks immediately rather than doing the same thing over and over. For example, a volleyball coach may switch from a blocked drill schedule to a mixed one in order to improve their players' performance in games. A blocked drill may consist of passing over and over and a mixed drill may consist of passing and then setting right after, as shown in the video below.