======== WDL Dis. #13 (Bcc: all WDL participants) ======
>From kurt_fischer@email.msn.com  Fri Mar  3 13:21:50 2000
From: "kurt_fischer" <kurt_fischer@email.msn.com>
To: "Dr John J Weng" <weng@cse.msu.edu>
Subject: Re: WDL Dis. #6

John:
    Sorry to be so slow to respond. You raise an interesting question, but I
wonder about your interpretation of  moving to lower levels in automatized
behavior.
    I would say instead that the control of the skilled bicyclist
(automatized behavior) is at a high level, such as "go down the street to
the corner and then turn right to the playground," with the automatized
cycling activities (lower down in the hierarchy) organized by and
subordinated to that higher level skill. Reorganizing those low-level skills
becomes difficult because they are subordinated and thus not available for
reorganization. Human beings routinely move down to lower levels to
reorganize them, which is a key reason for our plasticity, even in
adulthood.
    Dropping down to a lower skill level happens when we need to reorganize
the bicycling activities for a new task, such as riding a different kind of
bicycle or related machine or riding in a very different way where coaching
might be helpful (very different terrain, racing instead of leisure). Then
we (unconsciously for the most part) use the process that we described in
our abstract.
                        Best, Kurt Fischer