Learning Project

The skill that I learned was how to tie a half-windsor tie knot. This is a wide knot compared to other knots such as the four in hand knot. The knot has simply seven steps as shown: 1

Start with the wide end ("W") of your necktie on the right, extending about 12 inches below the narrow end ("N") on the left.

Then cross the wide end over the narrow end.

Bring the wide end around and behind the narrow end.

Then bring the wide end up.

Pull the wide end through the loop and to the right.

Bring the wide end around front, over the narrow end from right to left.

Again, bring the wide end up and through the loop.

Then, bring the wide end down through the knot in front.

Using both hands tighten the knot carefully and draw it up to the collar.

After I acquired this new skill I chose to teacher my young cousin, Timothy Tracy, how to tie this very same knot. I used operant learning to help him learn this skill and by using a piece of candy as reinforcement he was able to learn and encode this new information into his procedural memory fairly quickly. At first I used continuous reinforcement, but to further strengthen his memory of the skill I later used a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.

When learning this half-windsor knot I encoded the information through explicitly memorizing the way to accomplish my desired skill. As I am mainly a reflective observational learner, I had to find the steps to perform the knot, and also a video that showed how to tie the knot, in order to effectively understand the steps. Also, to actively consolidate the new skill into my long-term memory I elaborately rehearsed the skill repeatedly and recognized similar steps in this knot, to the steps in tying the knot I used before learning the half-windsor. I used this tie knot once a week for a month also, whenever the need to wear a tie came up organically I would use this knot in an effort to further strengthen the connections to the information associated with this skill. When tying a knot, you can either tie left or right. I found that if I tied the tie the same way every time that my memory of how to perform the specific knot became second nature.

There are many parts of the brain that could be considered in use when learning and performing the skill of tying a half-windsor tie knot. All four lobes in the cerebral-cortex were utilized in learning the skill. More regions of the brain were used as well. The cerebellum was used in dexterity, a much needed ability in order to tie this half-windsor. The Thalamus was most obviously used because it is the region of the brain where all information travels through before moving in or out of the brain. The hippocampus was indefinitely used because it is most identifies as the learning center of the brain and also the area dealing with transferring short-term memory to long-term memory. Lastly the basal ganglia is also used similar to the cerebellum in movement. These regions of the brain are used in my own brain and my cousins brain alike to effectively learn the skill presented to us.

In addition to acquiring the knowledge of this new skill, I did also teach my cousin, Timothy Tracy, how to tie this type of tie and store this information in his long-term memory as well. I taught Tim by showing him first, to show him how to to tie this tie. Then, following this effort to teach visually I proceeded to teach him actively, walking him through the steps to tie this tie himself. The steps expressed to me in an informational online source were proving to be fairly segmented therefore, I thought that this information would be better encoded by chunking the information, where the steps were consolidated before the information was processed.

To reinforce the desired behavior of correctly tying the knot I used a specific type of behavioral learning called operant conditioning, where by the response of the individual changes as a result of the following consequence. For every time that the tie was tied incorrectly I would not positively reinforce Timothy with a candy, and when he did tie the knot correctly I would. At first, I continuously reinforced him with every correct response. Later, I switched to a variable ratio reinforcement so that he would keep performing the desired response without any reinforcement.

Currently, both Tim and myself still can retrieve the information to do this skill easily and do on a daily basis. With the techniques used from chunking in the processing stage, to the reinforcement alteration, the memory encoded in