Homework 1: How I do an everyday task
How I go
down a staircase?
When I am at the top of a staircase, the first input that is
processed, leading to the realization that a staircase needs to be traversed,
is the visual input. The image of the staircase is recognized as a pattern and
classified as a type of 'stairs'. Next I found myself aware of the height and
the width (in the forward direction) of each step. I also found myself subtly
plotting a route to the end of the staircase*.
The actual descent (carried out one step at a time) began
when I lifted a foot (no preference for left or right in my case) and
positioned it above the next step (trying to position it exactly in the middle
of the next step). Next, the knee of the other leg was bent (slowly at first
and let free afterwards), till the foot hit the step. After, quickly balancing
myself, I lifted the other foot from the previous step and positioned it above
the next step and repeated the above process. The last step is tackled by
finally putting both feet on the ground. I remember more than once being
surprised at the last step because I was not paying attention and was unaware
that the stairs had ended. Thus, I can safely say that I also kept track of the
number of steps remaining. I have also found myself judging the parity (odd -
even) of the stairs in cases where I was planning to go down 2 steps at a time.
I would like to conclude by stating that this is a process
which evolves with practice and more and more steps add to it as one gains
experience with the existing ones. I have had the (mis)fortune
of having to nurse more than one grandparent who had forgotten all motor skills
due to a neurological illness. I taught them to walk and to climb up and down
stairs. I found that for them, while learning, only
the next step mattered. All of their planning was to get to the next step only.
Once they had both feet on the next step, they planned further.
* - Before writing this article, I tried many staircases.
However, one in particular, led me to believe that I actually plotted a path to
the end of the staircase (or atleast to an
intermediate point in case the entire staircase is not visible at once). This
staircase was divided into 4 parts. It went down for 5-6 steps, then turned
left by 90o, then again descended for 4-5 steps and turned 90o,
it again descended for 3 steps and turned 90o, finally it descended
for 7-8 steps and included a large last step which was twice the size of the
other steps in width but had the same height. The 90o turns had
square connecting tiles. I found that stepping on and off the square connecting
tiles could be done in two ways. I could stick to the left side and used the
square connecting tile as another step in the staircase or I could first get to
the square tile with both feet and then start over (this is necessary if you
are descending with another person who already is on the left side). I found
that if I were to go with the second option, I only cared about the first part of
the staircase till I reached the first connecting tile and so on. I also found
myself wishing to take the left side and optimize my path.