The compatibility between the direction you want to turn the car and the direction you turn the wheel is perfectly matched up. This helps you to visualize which way the car is going to move and to anticipate new stimuli coming your way. Incompatible stimuli often are confusing and take longer to react to; and quick reaction times are extremely important on the road. It also just does not make a lot of logical sense to turn the wheel to the right in order to move left. If cars were in fact made this way, in an incompatible way, learning to drive a car would take much more practice and patient to get over the unnatural movements. This alternative also runs the risk of confusion on the road which could lead to more car accidents. 

 

The image below shows what I assume to be a mother and daughter driving together. To this day, after five years of having my license, I still don't like driving with my mom because of her backseat driving, which looks like what this mom might be doing in the picture.

 

I learned that the best way for me to study was with a form of distributed practice; spreading out my studying over a couple days rather than cramming the night before. Distributed practice states that learning is better if it is spread out over days than if it is massed within a few days and the amount of rest between practice sessions (or study days) is relatively long. If I would have learned this skill before my first college exam, maybe I would have prepared differently. The sad part is, even I know this form of practice or studying to be best, sometimes I still cram the night before.

This GIF shows Homer Simpson visually stressed out and studying for something, which is probably what I look like when don't use distributed studying.

 

The good thing is, it’s not entirely your fault. The idea of the psychological refractory period states that the shorter amount of time in between two or more closely spaced stimuli, the longer it will take you to react to the second stimuli. This means that when the player in front of you makes their initial movement in one direction and then immediately moves in the opposite direction, your brain cannot react to the second movement as quickly as they moved. This makes it easier for the player to get by you because your brain is preoccupied with the initial movement and isn’t ready to react immediately to the actual movement of them running past you. 

 

This is a compilation video showing Lionel Messi, one of the best soccer players in the world, performing some of his best fakes and cuts to get around defenders- making it look like a piece of cake.

 

 

As I started to try and explain how to braid, I felt my hands automatically reach for the back of my head as I began to speak, but obviously his hands were where mine would normally be. So, I tried explaining the task with just words, and let’s just say it did not go well. I didn’t know how to describe the specific hand placements and movements or order to grab hair without doing it myself. 

 

My lack of verbal shareable knowledge shows that French braiding hair is stored as procedural knowledge in my brain. This task has become so automatic and natural for me that is difficult to verbalize. Procedural knowledge is often non-conscious and automatic, and consists of instructions for the performance of a series of operations, often using hand or body motions to aid in describing the process. I’m sure I could teach him how to do it by just having him watch me, but it’s kind of funny to have him try to follow my horrible, vague instructions.

 

The GIF below shows a clip from the movie Pocahontas where Meeko makes braiding hair look like a breeze.  

 

One of the most common type of patients we see is older adults who need treatment and training on how to balance while walking and daily activities. It is such a rewarding feeling to see them go from only being able to walk a couple of steps to being able to walk all around the clinic with no assistance or wobbling. We usually do this through bilateral transfer. We start with what they are most scared of, and usually the worst at, balancing on one foot. Learning to balance on one foot improves overall balance over time.  By learning to balance on say your left foot, you would not only be training your left leg muscles to complete the task, but also training your brain on how to balance. Then when you would try and balance on your right foot, or with both feet, you would be better at this new task because your brain is already used to the idea of the task. Bilateral transfer uses both cognitive and motor control factors to explain how balancing on one foot translates to better balance on both feet. 

 

This image shows a person on a type of balance board, something we use to increase the complexity of balancing on normal, stable ground.