A funny thing happened the other day in class. Xavier, Erica and I were talking about our blogs and I mentioned how we used to make these bracelets in high school. It was an absolute imperative for everyone to have, make or give them away. Xavier said: You mean Friendship Bracelets? Upon google-ing them, we realized that all three of us share a memory about this object (or should I say phenomenon?), a memory which originated in three different continents! So, I guess I lied when I said I had had no experience with jewelry making! Oops! Sorry!
This conversation made me think! Here I am struggling to tie knots between pearls, all clumsy and imprecise, when I should actually build on my prior knowledge. BUT, is my knowledge about Friendship Bracelets relevant to this new learning situation? Can I activate it to an extent that would help me improve some of the more modern techniques I want to master? Or am I perhaps misinterpreting new information because I subconsciously use this experience to construct new understandings? The book says "all learning involves transfer from previous experiences" (p.68). I decided to investigate this sudden memory and the transfer I might be experiencing (Still shocked about that, by the way! Isn't human mind an absolutely fascinating thing? I guess our buddy Martinez is correct in calling long-term memory the warehouse of the mind!).
Here is an image of my first attempt! (Looks like a snake a bit, doesn't it? :P) I used embroidery floss and tried to recreate the Friendship bracelet from my memory, but it turned out to be all curled and twisted. I think I experienced a bit of negative transfer there, because I now have the knowledge of pearl knotting in my mind, which involves one knot only, while the friendship bracelet needs double half-hitch knots to prevent the curling from happening. However, even though I made plenty of these 20 years ago, that detail somehow got erased and the new knowledge hurt my performance in my first attempt.On the other hand, there was a lot of near transfer that helped me work on it almost automatically. I got used to the knots, tension I need to apply and hand movements I need to coordinate. Luckily for me, with bracelet making, "deliberate practice" is doable. The second I make something, I get visual feedback on whether it looks good or not. Not only that I do not want to wear a "snake" around my wrist, but it is all twisty and annoying. Hence, I decided to prompt myself with a Youtube video on how to do this.
This "deliberate practice" as the book calls it provided much better results. Watching a video after making an attempt to make a bracelet actually prompted me to specific details that I was vigilant of, such as the details from my long-term memory that I could not recall and that caused problems in my end product. For instance, how to avoid the twisting situation, or how to buckle it up temporarily. Therefore, my second attempt was pretty good. Finally, progress! :)
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