Re: Multiple variable reasoning (Was: Appropriate for Gen Phys? was: comprehending electric/magneticinteractions)

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 17:06 -0500 7/4/03, John Clement wrote:
> Now the Morse code situation is actually a much simpler training
> problem.  Assuming you can comprehend the alphabet and have no hearing
> or manual dexterity, it may be possible to learn it.  Skinnerian
> training techniques can be used for this type of situation.  This is not
> usually a very high cognitive skill, and should eventually become an
> automatic skill.

Interesting that Morse Code should come up in this context. I had to
learn it years ago in Navy flight training, and I barely got my speed
up to the 8 WPM that was required at the time, and as soon as I
passed the test, my skills went back down to about 4 WPM, since I
haven't used it in years, it is now at 0 WPM. Fortunately for those
who followed me, Morse Code is now pretty much obsolete and it is no
longer required of budding Naval Aviators. It was years later that I
learned probably why I had so much trouble with it. As it turned out
the antiquated system they used for the training made it almost
impossible for many to master the speed they required (I wasn't alone
in having big trouble).  It was just a tape of various letters in
code. When you wanted to go to a higher speed, you just increased the
tape speed. What happened then was that the dots and dashes got
closer together at the same time that the time gap between letters
was reduced, so as you got faster, the letters sounded differently,
and at slow speeds you could count the dots and dashes, but when the
speed got higher, you couldn't count them, so if you hadn't learned
the whole sound, you were lost.

I saw a much better system later, which played the dots and dashes at
the same speed (what you would hear at about 24 WPM, and to increase
speed you just changed the time interval between letters. This way,
you couldn't count dots and dashes, you had to learn what the letter
sounded like as a whole. Once you got to that point, then increasing
speed was a breeze--receiving, that is, not sending. That was a
different story, but fortunately we didn't have to learn to send,
only to receive.

But learning Morse Code isn't like learning physics . . . Personally,
I found physics easier.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
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<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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