Aim - To describe the thought processes and mental representations involved in completing an everyday task
Task Chosen - On my laptop, opening the terminal and changing the directory to Downloads directory (I have to do it often as some regularly used firewall scripts are present in that directory)
Steps
Involved (Overview) -
1) I open the terminal ('Windows Key' +
'Enter')
2) Type 'cd ./Dow' + 'Tab' + 'Enter'
Steps Involved (In Detail) -
To open the terminal, I press 'Windows' + 'Enter' without even looking at the keyboard. This happens as my brain is aware of their positions on the keyboard and I do not have to rely on visual sensory input for the same.
After this, my hands get positioned for the commands to enter (one hands' finger on 'c' & 'd'; another's on ',' & '.' and the thumbs on space and this happens without any conscious effort.
For all the typing, the movement of my hand takes place in a familiar pattern. Even though my eyes are on the key that is to be pressed, the visual sensory input does not direct my hand movements, it only helps in error checking.
No conscious effort is made to decide which finger should press which button so that the overall process is efficient.
The typing is done in parts, for eg pressing c & d is more like typing one part rather than two distinct letters as they are very near on the keyboard and the fingers are positioned such that it is possible to immediately press one after the other.
It is never a conscious decision to type 'Dow' + 'Tab' rather than 'Downloads'. This optimization also occurs without me actually deciding to do it.
Analysis of the Processes and Mental Representaions involved - an effort to figure out why we are efficient....
The sequence of movements that the hands should follow is somehow stored in the brain and is associated with the image of the concepts of 'Terminal' and 'cd Command' and this sequence is easily accessible if we are accessing the related concepts in our brain (like the Principle of locality used in a cache in computers).
The brain remembers in chunks and even the sequence of movements is stored in a similar way in the brain for eg typing 'cd' is one chunk, typing ./ is another and so on. For the brain, this effectively reduces the length of the command to be typed.
The brain makes minimum use of the sensory input it recieves and rather trusts the stored patterns which increases the efficieny. Taking an analogy from the computers, the sensory inputs act more like an interrupt signal that something to be constantly processed.
Throughout the task which we do efficiently, we do not really make any conscious decision and this increses the speed with which we can accomplish it. The next step that is to be taken is not consciously approved of by the brain, we just do it. In a sense, we 'switch off' the 'conscious mode' for a task for which the 'action sequence' is available in the brain. This is also seen when we have to do a task very similar to the one we are used to for eg if I want to change the directory to 'Documents' instead of 'Downloads', more often than not, I end up typing 'Dow + Tab' rather than 'Doc + Tab'. This shows that the brain automatically tries to follow the available 'action sequence' for a task and not 'waste' time in making conscious decisions at each step.