# data[].attributes.body
Throughout high school, I also participated in track and field. I ran 100 and 200 meter sprints as well as the 100 meter hurdles. In these races, it is very important to leave the starting block perfectly. Compared to other races, there is no time to compensate for time lost getting out of the starting block. Therefore, performance leaving the starting block impacts the performance in the entire race.

With practice, I was able to learn how to leave the blocks at the beginning of each race successfully. My improvement can be explained by the stages of learning that every learner appears to go through as they practice a skill. According to Fitts and Posner, learning a motor skill involved three distinct stages: cognitive, associative, and autonomous.

In the first stage, performances rely heavily on cognitive or verbal processes. Performance is inconsistent as proper strategies are determined and improvement gains are dramatic. Therefore, a lot of cognitive problem solving is occurring and verbal information is needed to walk through the steps. The goal of this stage is to determine what to do to be successful rather than getting better. I experienced this first stage when learning the right strategies I needed to use to effectively leave the starting block. Almost every time I left the block, I was told I did it wrong. I was told that I did one or two things right and simply needed to incorporate something else as well. As I figured out how to incorporate all the right movements at the same time, I was finally able to successfully leave the block.

The second stage of learning, also known as the associative stage, involves the establishment of motor patterns. Although I was able to successfully leave the starting block at the end of the first stage, I wasn't leaving the block fast enough. Therefore, in the second stage I was able to make more gradual improvements in the speed at which I left the starting block. In addition, I was now able to drop the verbal steps to completing the task, but could not yet detect my own errors. After completion of the task, my coach would let me know what I needed to improve on.

Throughout my first couple years of track, I was stuck in the second stage of learning for this task. At the beginning of each race, I would have to run through my head all the correct positions and angles I needed to utilize to get out of the starting block. It consumed me at the beginning of each race, which increased my nervousness. However, in my final season of track as a senior I was finally able to move into the third stage of learning, also known as the autonomous stage. The attentional requirements for leaving the starting block were reduced and it became more automatic. I didn't have to think out every step before the beginning of every race. As a result, I was able to process other information related to the race such as my opponents and my performance in the actual race. Additionally, if I left the starting block incorrectly I was able to detect where the error came from, such as my back was too arched.

The following GIF describes how I felt when I realized I reached that stage of the learning process and that my performance had significantly improved.

# data[].attributes.body
I started rollerblading when I was really young and I was naturally really good at it. Therefore, growing up I spent a lot of time rollerblading. Rollerblading is very similar to ice skating, which I attempted for the first time in middle school. I was immediately very good at ice skating whereas my friends were struggling to stay upright and continuously fell over. After talking with my friends, I learned that many of them had never rollerbladed before. I believed this to be the reason why I was better than everyone else. After this course, I now know that this is very true.

This phenomenon can be explained by the Identical Elements Theory for positive transfer which states that transfer of a skill occurs as a result of similar movement patterns and elaborated automatisms, or self-corrections made to movement to aid in the performance of a skill. Rollerblading and ice skating have very similar movement patterns: move one foot forward and to the side then the other foot. Additionally, both skills require a low and forward center of mass to be maintained to prevent falling as well as a strong, angled pressure into the ground as each foot moves forward.

Although I am not a professional figure skater, this GIF describes how I felt compared to my friends that were struggling to skate.

# data[].attributes.body
My freshman year of high school was the first time that I ever played tennis competitively. In the past, I had played around with tennis but never actually played a real match against anyone. Therefore, you can expect that my performance in my first season of tennis was not the best as compared to my last season senior year. However, I learned a lot from practice in that first season which helped improve my performance in the sport.

My performance playing tennis in the first season can be described by the Law of Practice which states that improvements in a skill become systemically smaller as practice continues. This can be seen in a negatively accelerated performance curve where performance improvements are large at the beginning but continued practice results in smaller improvements.

In the beginning, my performance experienced a lot of variability as I learned strategies for playing tennis successfully, which required a lot of problem solving. As my performance improved towards the end of the season, less variability was observed and was instead replaced with a higher degree of consistency.

One specific example of the Law of Practice observed in my performance was my serving. When I first started, I had no idea how to serve. Another teammate demonstrated to me how to serve, but I continued to struggle. The first thing I needed to tackle was preventing the racket from turning in my hand once the ball hit it. After I was able to accomplish this, my next plan of action was learning how to keep the ball in the court when serving. Whenever I would serve the ball would fly into the distance away from the court. This required me to learn the proper angle of the wrist needed to serve the ball. As a result of problem solving and practice, I was able to improve my performance by utilizing strategies that caused me to be successful.

Although my performance was poor in the beginning and throughout most of practice as I learned new strategies, I ended the season a better player. My performance improvements began large but ended small.

This GIF represents how I felt whenever I did not perform as well as I would have liked. But I knew that with practice I would get better.

# data[].attributes.headline
Serve, Forehand, Backhand, Volley, Overhead, repeat. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Serve, Forehand, Backhand, Volley, Overhead, repeat. 

# data[].attributes.body
Throughout my high school career, I played tennis. Each tennis season began at the end of summer through the end of fall. Every day, excluding the weekends, I practiced tennis for two hours. A typical tennis practice included a short run to begin, separation into groups to work on a variety of skills associated with the sport, followed by tennis matches between team members, and completed with group stretching.

When we were separated into groups to work on different skills that are important for success in playing tennis, it involved random practice as opposed to blocked practice. We would play a "pretend" match, with one opponent, in which we practiced our swings. Each player would have to decide on a type of swing that was different than the one previously used: forehand, backhand, volley, or overhead. This provided each player with the ability to practice each swing in a random order. It also gave players experience receiving the ball as a result of different swings. For example, a backhand swing may sometimes require a volley to return the ball whereas a forehand swing may allow one the ability to choose a swing of choice to return the ball. It all depends on the force of the swing and the speed of the ball.

According to the Elaboration and Action Plan Reconstruction Hypotheses, random practice is better for both retention and transfer. The Elaboration Hypothesis states that blocked practice involves little comparison as a result of the same strategy trial after trial. Random practice allows a person to engage in several strategies to compare and contrast skill variations throughout practice. As a result, task representations are kept in working memory and more memorable with random practice. The Action Plan Reconstruction Hypothesis states that blocked practice involves previously constructed plans available in working memory to be used during the performance of a skill. Random practice involves previous action plans being abandoned and reconstructed, which involves problem solving. As a result, task representations are continuously reconstructed and more memorable in random practice.

Therefore, the random practice that I experienced during tennis practice allowed me to perform better during competitive tennis matches as a result of better problem solving skills and action plan reconstruction. Retention and transfer was very evident in my tennis match scores.

The GIF below represents the happiness after a good match. Whenever I won a match, it reminded me that practice really does pay off.

# data[].attributes.body
For the past two years, I have worked as a student assistant at the UW Foundation. One of the many jobs required of me is to relieve the reception desk member of their responsibilities for breaks including an hour long lunch break. The noon hour at the reception desk is very overwhelming because there is always a rush of events happening. It is common for multiple lunch orders to arrive, individuals arriving for meetings, and employees asking me questions about travel permits and car reservations. On top of all of this, the phone is constantly ringing.

According to the Theories of Attention, the human attention capacity is limited and fixed. The Filter/Bottleneck Theory states that only one piece of information can be processed at any given time. In my case this would indicate that of all the events happening at once, I can only process one situation at a time before moving on to handle another. For example, signing for a lunch order and then calling an employee to let them know that someone arrived for their meeting. The Central Resource Theory states that there is limited attention resources to do all the activities that we may attempt to do at one time. There is a central reservoir from which all activities compete. Humans have the ability to perform several tasks simultaneously, which is considered "multi-tasking," as long as the resource capacity limits are not exceeded. In other words, if a task does not require use of someone's entire attention then leftover attention can be used to accomplish another task. I have learned that I am good at multi-tasking signing for lunch orders and answering phone calls at the same time because signing the paper does not require me to talk so I do not have to talk to two people at once.

Based on these theories, if there are too many stimuli in my environment trying to gain my attention, I have to focus on and respond to only one or two stimuli at a time to ensure that my attentional capacity is not exceeded. Other stimuli have to wait until the first stimuli has been processed. I may direct my attention to an individual that has arrived for a meeting first before someone that is delivering food because these individuals that arrive for meetings are typically very important and meetings run on a schedule. After this, I can focus my attention on the food delivery.

The following GIF illustrates how overwhelming it can be to work the reception desk at the noon hour.