Habit patterns | habit pattern errors | old habits no longer die hard | rapid correction of habit pattern errors in driving

From an article published by the site author in Roadwise, 2004, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 19-24, the journal of the Australian College of Road Safety.

Keywords: habit pattern errors, error patterns, driving, driving instruction, driving instructors, driver education, driver training, driving habits, transfer, transfer of learning, transfer of training, road safety, safety campaigns, road toll.

Abstract

Driver educators and trainers try to get it right the first time with their students but invariably end up spending a lot of time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop. Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over (i.e., practiced), many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and are then much harder to eradicate. This paper:

1. Presents a new explanation for the common observation that although driver education and training programs appear to improve knowledge and skill, this learning do not readily transfer to safer driver behaviour and reduced crashes; and
2. Offers a new theory and method for rapidly correcting driver misconceptions and changing habitual automated driving behaviours, thereby improving the effectiveness of driver education and training programs.

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Habit pattern errors—what's wrong with driver education and training?

Experience tells us that old driving habits die hard and many errors defy correction by conventional methods (Smith, 2003). Instances readily come to mind, e.g., Susan typically follows too closely when driving in traffic; Mike always has to be reminded to first look behind before starting to reverse; and John has a bad habit of taking his eyes off the road when talking to his front seat passenger. This limitation of traditional driver education and training programs is apparent in all settings including private, commercial and government.

Driver re-training or re-education and various penalty and incentive systems, the typical solutions to these problems, improve things only slowly, if at all. Drivers may appear to pay attention during training and actually practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over. But on the next day or when placed under stressful driving conditions they seem to have forgotten what they have learned and the same old entrenched attitudes, beliefs, misunderstandings and bad driving practices resurface.

Although driver education and training programs often improve driver knowledge, skills and attitudes, these gains fail to translate into improved on-road driving behaviour (Smith, 2003). Even where driver behaviour does improve, the improvement is often only temporary or takes a long time to show.

The research literature on driver education and training is filled with a bewildering array of explanations of why many education and training programs often fail. Training failure is usually attributed to a host of factors such as poor motivation, lack of skills training, poor quality training, driver attitude, a lack of driving experience, driver misconceptions and so on, most of which are considered to be beyond the educator's and trainer's control.

This unhappy record of ineffectiveness negates the demonstrated beneficial effects of driver education and training and puts the industry in an unfavourable light.

The well documented inability of conventional driver education and training methods to overcome habitual automated driving faults is even considered by some to set an upper limit on the corrective potential of driver education and training (Harrison, 1997).

Attempts over many years to strengthen the impact of driver education and training programs have not had any enduring or substantial effect. People are still injured and killed on the world's roads in huge numbers on a daily basis. There just has to be a better way.

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Habit pattern errors—the transfer of training problem

Here is the core question. If driver education and training has been shown to be effective in improving knowledge, skills and attitudes, why do these gains not show up in improved driver behaviour and reduced crashes? Why do the knowledge and skills that are learned during training and subsequently practiced, fail to produce improved driving behaviour?

To put this differently, what safety educators and trainers hope to achieve is that the improved knowledge, skills and attitudes that were evident in the training and practice setting will transfer to the on-road, real world, driving setting. This does not normally occur so we have what is known as a "transfer of training problem."

Although documented in driver education and training (Lourens, 1992), the transfer of training problem is certainly not restricted to this field. Transfer problems pose an obstacle to learning progress wherever automated skill, knowledge, or behavioural routines are involved, e.g.,

• the learning of mathematics (Drucker, McBride, & Wilbur, 1987)
• science (Rowell, Dawson, & Lyndon, 1990)
• spelling (DeMasters, Crossland, & Hasselbring, 1986)
• athletic and sports performance (Hanin, Korjus, Jouste, & Baxter, 2002)
• artistic performance (Khan, et al. 1995)
• driving a motor vehicle (Lourens, 1992)
• working with computers (Zapf, Brodbeck, Frese, Peters & Prumpers, 1992)
• speech therapy (Lyndon & Malcolm, 1984)
• overuse and sports injuries (Purdam, 1989; Khan, et al. 1995)
• postural problems (Gieck, Foreman, & Saliba, 1989)
• foreign language learning (Chung-yu, 1976)
• management training and organisational change (Newstrom, 1983; West, 1994).

The key element in all these situations is that the learner is faced with having to change what he or she already knows. As we shall see later, having to change one's own ways in the face of new and conflicting knowledge, is the root cause of the problem.

Often, we do achieve the desired transfer of training but the observed improvements in driver behaviour are only temporary and drivers soon fall back to their old ways. What is both surprising and dismaying is that drivers' conceptual understanding and skills actually do improve during training and they can perform in the new way and can practice it correctly. However, they immediately revert to their old driving behaviour when the trainer's presence is withdrawn, when asked to perform independently or when driving under stressful conditions.

When we look at training failure in terms of transfer failure, the central problem becomes one of how to improve transfer from the education and training setting to the demanding and potentially stressful world of on-road driving.

However, we still need a plausible explanation for why transfer of training remains a mission critical issue, despite the great variety of quality education and training programs.

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Habit pattern errors—a learning hazard

Consistency of errors in human performance appears to be the rule rather than the exception (Ashlock, 1986; Wilson, 1982). Although a superficial inspection of performance errors may suggest that errors are random, a closer inspection of the errors of individual performers invariably reveals a pattern (DeMasters, Gossland & Hasselbring, 1986).

For example, whenever a driver makes an error such as following too closely, it is highly likely that this error will be repeated under similar circumstances. Not only will the driver follow too closely but also he or she will adopt the same following distance almost every time?this distance is both consistent and highly predictable. In other words, following too closely is an example of an entrenched habit pattern. Given the highly automated nature of most driving skills, the prevalence of both good and bad habit patterns in driving is very extensive.

Most habit pattern errors are not only consistent, they are also systematic because, unlike random or guesswork attempts, they reveal the existence of an underlying logical, though incorrect, reasoning process (DeMasters, et al. 1986). Much poor driving behaviour is based on misconceptions about driving that are as entrenched, habitual and resistant to correction as the driving behaviours themselves.

The progressive development of skilled automated habit patterns is hard-wired into human learning. According to Dodgson (1987), skill development typically follows these four sequential stages:

1. Unconscious incompetence (we are unaware of what we don't know)
2. Conscious incompetence (we know what we don't know)
3. Conscious competence (we can do it but only by consciously attending to each component or step of the skill)
4. Unconscious competence (we perform the skill in automatic mode, without conscious attention to each of the steps involved).

The human brain automates all skilled routines because this is an efficient way to cope with life's demands. Bargh and Chartrand (1999) explain why.

"To consciously and willfully regulate one's own behavior, evaluations, decisions, and emotional states requires considerable effort and is relatively slow. Moreover, it appears to require a limited resource that is quickly used up, so conscious self-regulatory acts can only occur sparingly and for a short time. On the other hand, the nonconscious or automatic processes … are unintended, effortless, very fast and many of them can operate at a given time. Most important, they are effortless, continually in gear guiding the individual … through the day. Automatic self-regulation is, if you will, thought lite? One third less effort than regular thinking…. The individual is free … of the burden of their operation." (p. 18)

The amazing thing about human learning is not just that we are able to quickly develop automated skilled routines but that this automation itself occurs automatically. All we have to do is practice, i.e., repeat, a skill and soon it becomes an established and habitual routine.

A crucial feature of human learning is that whatever we practice will be learned to habit (automated routine) strength. It is therefore just as easy to learn to do something incorrectly, as it is to learn to do it correctly in the first place. All you have to do is repeat an error enough times and it soon develops into a bad habit and is then much harder to correct. This emphasizes the crucial importance for driver education and training of "getting it right the first time."

How do habit pattern errors arise? Many habit errors develop when, for some reason, e.g., misinterpreted instructions, poor quality instruction or self-taught efforts, the performer learns to do things wrong and this learned error progresses, through practice, to the autonomous stage of performance (Pyke, 1980). At this point it is no longer under conscious control.

Habitual errors are among the most common of all errors, and the most difficult to eradicate. The extreme practical difficulty in eliminating habit errors has led to the belief that eradication attempts should be abandoned in favour of controlling or minimising their consequences (Reason, 1990).

Improvements in automotive engineering including inbuilt safety systems such as ABS, stability control, crumple zones and following distance warning systems among others have contributed greatly to safety. However, the fact remains that most vehicle crashes, like other accidents, are still attributable to human factors (Smith 2003).

Given the extremely wide prevalence of habit pattern errors in driving and their resistance to correction, why is it that old driving habits and misconceptions die so hard?

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Habit pattern interference with learning

The significance of consistent and persistent errors and misconceptions as obstacles to learning new ideas and learning new ways of doing things, is all too often underestimated (Ausubel, 1968; Baddeley, 1990; Houston, 1991; Lyndon, 2000).

Lyndon (1989) has proposed that the observed lack of learning transfer and associated regression to old erroneous ways is due to the well-documented mental mechanism of proactive inhibition.

Mental mechanisms that affect learning and memory have been widely studied by psychologists. One of these mechanisms, proactive inhibition (PI), also known as habit pattern interference, is an interference effect on learning and memory produced by, "conflicting associations that are learned prior to the learning of the task to be recalled" (Underwood, 1966, p.564).

In other words, if what the person has learned previously is in conflict with the new information or skill he or she is trying to learn, PI is involuntarily activated and interferes with the recall of the new material.

Lyndon (1989), in a novel interpretation and synthesis of well researched and accepted psychological learning principles, has extended our understanding of the influence of PI in meaningful learning situations and in habit change, and produced an explanation of why habitual errors in knowledge and skill are so difficult to eradicate.

When applied to driver education and training, the influence of proactive habit interference according to Baxter, Lyndon, Dole & Battistutta (in press) goes something like this.

1. Given that repetition of a driving behaviour is a sign that learning has occurred, consistent, habitual errors indicate the presence, rather than the absence, of learning. In this case, what the driver knows is how to do it incorrectly. What matters then is not what the driver does not know but what he or she already does know. The first task of the educator and trainer is to help the driver "unlearn" the pre-existing incorrect information or skill, rather than persist with getting the driver to practice the "right" way over and over.
2. When new information or ideas imparted during driver education and training disagree or conflict with what the driver already knows, this conflict generates proactive inhibition (Underwood, 1957, 1966) or habit pattern interference.
3. This interference causes accelerated forgetting (Underwood, 1966) of the new knowledge or skill and within minutes or hours the driver forgets what he or she has learned. This accelerated rate of forgetting is much faster than normal forgetting which may take weeks, months or sometimes years.
4. PI does not prevent learning from occurring, it merely prevents the association of conflicting ideas (Underwood, 1966). Consequently, if there is no conflict between the new and the old, then there is no interference and no barrier to learning. However, a driver's mind is seldom a blank slate and the potential for conflict between the driver's old and new knowledge is typically high.
5. PI does not distinguish between what is "right" and what is "wrong". It protects all prior knowledge and skills from change. Incorrect or unsafe driving habits are preserved just as strongly as are correct, safe driving practices.
6. Performance becomes cue-dependent and the driver reverts to prior behaviour patterns when the trainer's or educator's presence is withdrawn, thus inhibiting transfer of learning to other settings (Postman & Gray, 1977). This ensures that the erroneous knowledge and behaviour continue to resist correction.

By a process of psychological interference, then, old learning disables new learning. According to Lyndon, PI and accelerated forgetting are the reasons why old driving habits die hard.

Each of us is born with this inbuilt knowledge protection and maintenance system and it serves an important and useful purpose because without it the human mind would be in a constant state of confusion. A person's knowledge base would be forever changing in the face of a constant barrage of new, incoming and frequently conflicting information. However, the existence of this knowledge protection and maintenance system is a two-edged sword, with all prior knowledge, correct as well as incorrect, being protected from change.

For drivers, PI therefore has both positive and negative consequences. The ability to respond to driving situations instinctively, immediately, correctly and consistently by automatically activating safe driving habit patterns is a valuable survival skill. However, when the learned habit pattern we bring to bear to a driving situation is incorrect or unsafe then force of habit becomes a clear liability.

The level of proactive habit interference each of possesses varies, like all human abilities. We know that some drivers can understand and adopt what they have been taught reasonably quickly, while others seem puzzled or confused and repeatedly fall back to old ways of thinking and doing. The important point for driver educators and trainers is that everyone has at least some level of PI. Consequently, everyone is likely to experience at least some difficulty when trying to change our established ways and ideas. PI is a universal phenomenon in human learning and adaptation and every educator and trainer needs to take its potential effects into account.

A key point in the PI explanation of why old habits die hard is the notion that PI is automatically activated whenever the brain detects that new incoming information is different from what has already been learned, stored and automated. In practical terms, conventional, i.e., currently available, methods of driver education and training, inadvertently activate PI and actually make it harder for a person to understand and adopt new information and skills, because these methods do not take habit interference into account.

Conventional driver education and training emphasizes practice of the correct knowledge and skill, i.e., repetition or drill. Although practice is an essential and useful element when learning new information and skills, it is far less effective when trying to change pre-existing information or skills.

Another important feature of the habit interference process is that it operates at the unconscious level and neither the "teacher" nor the "learner" is aware of the mental interference being generated. The only clues that the brain is in conflict are mental confusion, slowed performance, increased error rate, and reversion to prior behaviour patterns when asked to perform independently or under stress. These are all symptoms of mental interference and are a familiar part of the "adaptation period" to new knowledge. In other words, the adaptation period with all its difficulties is actually symptomatic of interference from PI, and indicates an abnormal, rather than a natural, learning situation. Sadly, we have come to accept these adaptation difficulties as a normal part of human learning.

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Habit pattern errors—Old Way New Way^® driver education and training

The literature on education and training emphasizes the challenge posed by habit pattern errors and the associated poor transfer of learning, yet offers few practical solutions for dealing with these profound and universal learning obstacles (Bliss, 1995; Smith, 2003, Solomon, 1994). Old Way New Way^® offers a new perspective on this age-old problem.

Lyndon (1989; 2000) has developed an innovative teaching method to greatly reduce or eliminate habit pattern interference and this has profound practical implications for driver education and training.

Old Way New Way^® is a novel synthesis and interpretation of existing and newly emerging cognitive science concepts and principles, including automaticity in behaviour (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999); learned errors (Reason, 1990); the influence of prior learning (Ausubel, 1968); metacognition (Flavell, 1987); and proactive inhibition and accelerated forgetting (Underwood, 1957; 1966).

Experimental and quasi-experimental studies and field trials have given consistently positive results with Old Way New Way^® in the following areas:

• sport (Hanin et al. 2002)
• the correction of misconceptions in mathematics and science education (Baxter & Dole, 1990; Baxter, Lyndon & Dole, 1999; Dawson & Lyndon, 1997; Dole, 1991, 1993, 1999; Henderson, Higgs, Lyndon, Wilkinson, & Yates, 1999; Lyndon, 1989, 2000; Lyndon & Dawson, 1995; Rowell, Dawson, & Lyndon, 1990; Yates & Lyndon, 2004)
• in speech therapy (Lyndon & Malcolm, 1984)
• in workplace training (Baxter et al. in press; Weaver, Baxter & Lyndon, 2000).

Typically, after one successful correction session with Old Way New Way^®, the learner has an 80% or higher probability of performing in the new way; a 20% or lower probability of performing in the old way; and a 90% probability of self-detecting an old way when it occurs and then self-correcting it.

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Habit pattern error correction by Old Way New Way^®

Old Way New Way^® differs from conventional driver education and training methods in the following ways:

• persistent and consistent driving errors are a sign that learning has occurred, rather than a sign of learning failure or inability to learn
habitual errors must be acknowledged and not ignored
• the driver must practice differences between the correct and incorrect responses in order to discriminate them, so that habit unlearning and relearning can occur
it rapidly transfers the locus of control from external to internal
• Old Way New Way^® is readily incorporated into what driver educators and trainers usually do
• it places the emphasis and responsibility on what the learner should do, rather than on what the educator or trainer does
• it does not rely on external rewards or reinforcements to produce skill improvement
• it is well accepted by learners because it is simple to grasp and use, blameless, and non-manipulatory
• it assumes that improvement in performance does not depend on external consequences of the behaviour, e.g., incentives, but instead depends on overcoming proactive inhibition.

Although detailed instruction in the Old Way New Way^® teaching method is beyond the scope of this article, the various steps involved and their rationale have been outlined elsewhere (Baxter, et al. in press; Lyndon, 1989; Lyndon, 2000; Dawson & Lyndon, 1997). Typically, an Old Way New Way^® protocol involves the steps of error analysis, development of awareness of the incorrect (old) and correct (new) way, progressive discrimination of the old and new way, practice of the new way and follow up.

The counter-intuitive nature of Old Way New Way^® almost always generates PI within intending practitioners. For this reason teachers, coaches, instructors and other change agents can find it extremely difficult to change their own, established ways of teaching, coaching, instructing and treating clients. This works against the long term adoption of Old Way New Way as a generic teaching tool (Hanin, et al. 2002; Lyndon, 2000). A successful transition to and a lasting adoption of the methodology requires the individual to mediate his or her own established ways, a process best undertaken in accredited Old Way New Way^® training courses.

Although a formal evaluation of Old Way New Way^® in driver education and training has not yet been undertaken, the accumulated evidence to date in conceptual change and in skill correction and development in other related areas suggests that this innovative change methodology may be useful as a generic teaching tool.

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Force of habit | collected quotations | the chains of habit | habit patterns and their powerful role in our lives

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Samuel Johnson

Ninety-nine hundredths or, possibly, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of our activity is purely automatic and habitual, from our rising in the morning to our lying down each night. William James.

The essence of habit is an acquired predisposition to ways or modes of response, not to particular acts except as, under special conditions, these express a way of behaving. Habit means special sensitiveness or accessibility to certain classes of stimuli, predilections and aversions, rather than bare recurrence of specific acts. It means will. John Dewey.

Before you try to change others, remember how hard it is to change yourself. Bill Bluestein

Old habits die hard. Proverb

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle.

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. William James.

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of. Unknown

Habits are cobwebs at first; cables at last. Chinese Proverb

Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity. St Augustine

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. John Dryden

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. Benjamin Franklin

Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones. Stephen R. Covey

A habit is something you can do without thinking - which is why most of us have so many of them. Frank A. Clark

The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones. Somerset Maugham

The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half. Feodor Dostoevski

Habit is second nature, or rather, ten times nature. William James.

Habit is the most imperious of all masters. Goethe.

Consciousness is functionally active in readjustment. In perfectly I adapted' , situations, where adjustments are fluent and stereotyped, it exists in minimal degree. Only where there is hesitation, only where past habit will not run, do we find that the situation awakens explicit thought. Thought is thus incidental to change in experience, to conflict between the old and new. The situation must be reconstructed if activity is to be resumed, and the rejudging of it mentally is the reconstruction's first stage. William James.

Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. William James.

To make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy . . . we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. William James.

The will that yields the first time with some reluctance does so the second time with less hesitation, and the third time with none at all, until presently the habit is adopted. Henry Giles

It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge. Colton.

I will be a slave to no habit; therefore farewell tobacco. Hosea Ballou

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did; I ought to know because I've done it a thousand times. Mark Twain.

I am your constant companion, I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed - you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great people; and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human. You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin - it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, And I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. WHO AM I? I AM HABIT.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. Henry David Thoreau.

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge. Henry van Dyke.

Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thoughts, and habits can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an attitude realized. Paul Myer.

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality overcomes everything. George Lois.

First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you. Rob Gilbert.

Genius...means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. William James.

Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life. Too many of us divide and dissipate our energies in debating actions which should be taken for granted. Ralph W. Sockman.

Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy. Henri de Lubac.

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it. Horace Mann.

Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters. Nathaniel Emmons.

Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive. Edith Wharton.

Habit, my friend, is practice long pursued, that at last becomes man himself. Evenus.

The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade. Anthony Trollope.

Habits are safer than rules; you don't have to watch them. And you don't have to keep them either. They keep you. Frank Crane.

Habituation puts to sleep the eye of our judgment. Montaigne.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time. Charles Dickens.

In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedes all others, is--"I will form good habits and become their slaves." Og Mandino.

It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away. Kenich Ohmae.

It's not what you do once in a while, it's what you do day in and day out that makes the difference. Jenny Craig.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. Thomas Paine.

A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune. Richard Whately.

The more deeply the path is etched, the more it is used, and the more it is used, the more deeply it etched. Jo Coudert.

The oldest habit in the world for resisting change is to complain that unless the remedy to the disease should be universally applied it should not be applied at all. But you must start somewhere. Winston Churchill.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions. Ellen Glasgow.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Marcus Aurelius Antonius.

Sow an act...reap a habit; Sow a habit...reap a character; Sow a character...reap a destiny. George D. Boardman.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Marcus Aurelius.

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny. Tryon Edwards.

To make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy . we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. William James.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle.

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. John Dryden.

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Vince Lombardi.

Chaos often breeds life when order breeds habit. Henry Adams.

The phrases men are accustomed to repeat incessantly, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible. Eric Hoffer.

Habit is the denial of creativity and the negation of freedom; a self-imposed straitjacket of which the wearer is unaware. Arthur Koestler.

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. George Washington.

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. Jim Ryun.

Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger and we will make not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large. Mahatma Gandhi.

Happiness is a habit - cultivate it. Elbert Hubbard.

Consciousness is a phase of mental life which arises in connection with the formation of new habits. When habit is formed, consciousness only interferes to spoil our performance. W. R. Inge.

We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life. Bertrand Russell.

Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach. Sydney Smith.

Growing old is no more than a bad habit that a busy person has not time to for. Andre Maurois.

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. Mortimer Caplan.

Habit is something you can do without thinking, which is why most of us have so many of them. Frank Clark.

It's like magic. When you live by yourself, all your annoying habits are gone! Merrill Markoe.

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny. Tryon Edwards.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. Frank Outlaw.

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them. Agatha Christie.

Good habits result from resisting temptation. Ancient Proverb.

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income. Errol Flynn.

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. Mark Twain.

Nothing is stronger than habit. Ovid.

How use doth breed a habit in a man! William Shakespeare.

Habit with him was all the test of truth; 'It must be right, I've done it from my youth.' George Crabbe.

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Transfer | transfer of learning | transfer of training | overcoming habit pattern interference

Trainers, teachers, instructors and sports coaches try to get it right the first time with their trainees, students and athletes but invariably end up needing to spend valuable time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, non-compliance, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.

Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over, i.e., practiced, many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and therefore much harder to eradicate.

For example, John always writes "recieve" instead of "receive"; Mike always has to be reminded to wear his safety goggles; Mary always slices her golf swing; Susan always follow cars too closely when driving; and Geoff is mentally still following the previous aircraft’s pre-flight checklist even though he's converted to another aircraft.

We all know that old habits die hard and many habit patterns are resistant to conventional change methods.

These limitations of traditional teaching, coaching and training programs are apparent in all settings including sport, workplace training, education, therapy and personal development.

Re-training or re-education, the typical solution to these problems, improves things only slowly, if at all.

Although learners may appear to pay attention during instruction and practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over, the next day when placed under performance pressure or when unsupervised and left to their own devices, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve learned and the same habit pattern errors, e.g., old entrenched attitudes, beliefs, misunderstandings, work practices and routines, faulty procedures, poor techniques and unsafe behaviours, resurface.

A prolonged adjustment period and poor transfer of learning are the two most typical outcomes of education, training and coaching efforts worldwide.

All this wastes talent and resources and makes change and transition programs so much less cost-effective. There has to be a better way.

Fortunately, a cognitive science discovery called Old Way New Way^® Learning offers a:

• new perspective on the transfer of training problem
• cost-effective and user-friendly method for rapid skill and technique correction and habit eradication
• fast and practical method of transition and conversion training.

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Habit pattern correction | error correction | habit pattern errors and transfer | habit patterns disable learning | Old Way New Way^® learning

Error patterns

We all make mistakes when attempting to learn skills. The process of skill development, i.e., learning something new, involves making errors. Some errors are random and the result of memory lapses, distractions, carelessness, fatigue or inadvertent mistakes. These errors occur irregularly and are usually self-detected and self-corrected. These are among the kinds of errors novice practitioners make.

Many errors, however, are not random or careless but under error analysis appear to follow a pattern - they are consistent, systematic errors that through repetition, i.e., practice, have become learned, habitual and extremely resistant to correction. Error patterns, like all habit patterns, are produced automatically without conscious control and are for the most part no longer self-detected or self-corrected by the individual.

Consistency of errors in human performance appears to be the rule rather than the exception. While a superficial inspection of performance errors may suggest that errors are random, a closer inspection of the errors of individual performers invariably reveals a pattern. Across individuals, errors are often idiosyncratic, but there is considerable intra-individual consistency in the kinds of errors produced Most errors are not only consistent, they are also systematic because, unlike random or guesswork attempts, they reveal the existence of an underlying logical, though incorrect, reasoning.

Error patterns, sometimes called skill based errors, overlearned errors, habit intrusion errors, habit pattern errors, recurrent errors or expert errors are among the most common of all error forms.

Error patterns have been demonstrated in a wide spectrum of human performance where automated skill, knowledge or behavioural routines are involved, e.g., in the learning of mathematics and science; in driving a motor vehicle; in sport; in working with computers; in speech therapy; in chronic coughing; in postural problems; in foreign language learning; in artistic performance; and in management training and organizational change.

The performance inhibiting effects of error patterns have been documented in many sports, e.g., discus; javelin; shot put; ballet; soccer; cricket; hurdling; weightlifting; tennis, football, and in coaching. error patterns also play both a cause and effect role in overuse and sports injuries; and in postural problems of athletes.

Error patterns are also widely prevalent in workplace performance, e.g., the failure to follow standard operating procedures.

The wide prevalence of learned, i.e., consistent or habitual, errors has serious implications for corrective attempts because such errors resist correction. The failure to achieve rapid and permanent habit retraining and unlearning of erroneous knowledge and behaviour in skilled performance is widely documented. However, the significance of prior learning, i.e., consistent and persistent errors and misconceptions, as an obstacle to learning new ideas and new ways of doing things has been greatly underestimated.

How do error patterns arise?

Error patterns have multiple causes. Many error patterns develop when, for some reason, e.g., misinterpreted instructions, the person learns to do things wrong and this learned error progresses, through practice, to the autonomous stage of performance. At this point it is no longer under conscious control.

You do not have to be doing something wrong before you end up with a learned error. When change overtakes you then you can suddenly find yourself doing things incorrectly, e.g. when skilled performers have to change their behaviour when new equipment arrives, new procedures are introduced, new control panels are installed on previously familiar equipment, and so on. What was perfectly correct and best practice one day becomes unacceptable and wrong the next. The better someone has learned the original routine or actions in the first place, the harder it is to change over to the new way.

A common change management problem is faced by sports coaches when they take over players from another coach and the techniques taught by the new coach conflict with those taught by the old. If the old system or techniques have been well learned, the athletes will revert to the old system when placed under the stress of intensive training and competition.

Self-imposed change also creates problems, e.g., when a golf player changes club grip, the game starts to deteriorate. During the period of adaptation to the new way, performance may drop and errors increase. This makes players put off changing until they absolutely have to do so, by which time they will have developed an ingrained technique problem that resists correction.

Rule changes requiring a change in game plan and consequently in action sequences can also give rise to habit interference.

A performance slump, that dreaded occupational hazard of athletes, occurs when the athlete appears to have lost his or her form and becomes uncompetitive. Years of hard work in developing good technique are lost and in its place is a consistent, learned error that is automated, unintentional and resistant to correction. The search for that lost touch is typically prolonged, frustrating and destructive of self confidence and may even, if it goes on long enough, cause the athlete to drop out of his or her chosen sport. Sometimes the coach's reputation perishes along with the athlete's.

The universal tendency in human learning to relegate much of our activity to automatic response sequences triggered by environmental stimuli is usually beneficial because it is a more efficient way of functioning. Unlike conscious, deliberate and willful regulation of thoughts, actions and deeds, automatic, nonconscious and unintentional performance routines require only one third the mental effort. This frees up much needed resources for higher order mentally demanding processes such as developing a strategy or implementing a game plan. Relegating practiced performance routines to "automatic mode" is, in itself, an unconscious, automatic and hard-wired part of how the human brain functions which serves to reinforce the universal significance of automated learning in all human performance situations.

Sometimes, however, as with established technique and other performance difficulties, the learned, automated, pre-programmed performance sequence that is unconsciously and inadvertently triggered by an event or situation is flawed, unsafe, inefficient or in some other way "wrong", and it makes us inefficient or uncompetitive or may even expose us to injury or death. It is then that we discover to our regret that old habits really do die hard.

Conventional explanations of error patterns

Explanations of why persistent errors arise and why they resist correction are typically based on assumed intellectual or perceptual deficits. Under this deficit model, errors are seen as a sign that learning did not take place, e.g., the person learned little or nothing from the original instruction. Although the person underwent instruction, completed training and appeared to pay attention to the teacher, instructor or coach, the information or learning did not "take". Ruling out lack of motivation and other obvious factors, the underlying assumption is that the person continues to do it the wrong way because he or she still does not know the right way.

Error correction—the transfer of learning problem

Conventional deficit-based explanations of learning failure imply only one solution - once you assume that a consistent and persistent error implies a lack of knowledge or skill, then the obvious solution is to give the individual the missing knowledge or skill, i.e., re-train or re-teach it; do it all over again.

Re-teaching typically follows this pattern:

1. Tell him what he is doing wrong and explain why it is wrong
2. Improve his awareness of what he is doing wrong
3. Show or model the right way and explain why this way is better
4. Ask him to copy it
5. Give him corrective feedback and reinforcement
6. Get him to practice it.

Although additional learning modes, e.g., tactile, aural, visual, may be employed to reinforce learning over and above those used in the original training session, the general approach follows this model.

Re-teaching and re-training in the face of established habit errors is usually slow to show results, very time consuming, expensive of resources and largely unsuccessful, yet we persist with it because there are few alternatives. Correction methodologies that do produce worthwhile results such as some behavioural approaches are often complicated, time- and resource-intensive and difficult for all but highly trained practitioners to successfully implement.

Even when learning gains are made during conventional re-teaching, these improvements often fail to transfer to situations outside the original setting where the skill correction took place. For example. athletes often appear to improve during coaching sessions while under the coach's direct supervision, but revert to their old incorrect way of doing things when left to their own devices during hard training and competition. Similarly, machine operators trained to operate new equipment, when unsupervised and left to their own devices or when placed under pressure to perform, often fall back to old ways learned with previous equipment. Consequently, short-term learning gains are not permanent and soon fade over time.

Reversion to old incorrect routines in the face of stressful performance situations has been commonly observed in sport; and other skilled performance situations such as in workplaces. Clearly, something is wrong with the theory underpinning conventional methods of skill correction and habit reversal.

Error patterns are among the most common of all error forms and the most difficult to eradicate. The universal and extreme practical difficulty in eliminating learned, automated errors has led to the belief that eradication attempts should be abandoned in favour of controlling or minimising their consequences. Error management, as it has become known, now represents best practice in dealing with errors in many hazardous industries and in aviation.

The error management approach defines behavioural strategies taught in crew resource management as error countermeasures that are employed to avoid error, to trap errors committed and to mitigate the consequences of error.

However, in many uncontrolled environments like sport and in many workplaces, error management or containment is not a realistic alternative. However, the usual coaching advice, i.e., to increase skill drills, keep practicing, be persistent and simply accept that old habits die hard is just as unhelpful.

When error patterns are present, the learning that the person gets from skill drills does not transfer to the normal performance setting. In sport, for example, during competitive play the athlete may appear confused, performs more slowly, makes more errors, and falls back to his old, incorrect, technique. Improvement comes only slowly, if at all. For example, with a serious established technique problem, it can take a full off season or even longer before the problem is fixed. Clearly, we need a better way of skills coaching when error patterns are present.

Special techniques for correcting error patterns

Persistent errors in skilled performance are commonplace and constitute a significant obstacle to performance improvement for many participants including experienced performers as well as beginners. The coaching, workplace training and educational literature places great emphasis on, "getting it right the first time", because coaches, trainers and teachers know that when technique errors are allowed to go on uncorrected they soon develop into error patterns or bad habits, and are then much harder to eradicate. However, despite quality coaching, training and teaching and highly motivated athletes, trainees and students, coaches along with trainers and teachers inevitably end up spending a lot of their time trying to help people improve their poor technique.

Because of the overriding concern by all involved to gain that winning edge, sport is one of the few areas where the effectiveness of various skill correction methodologies has been assessed experimentally. Until recently, most coaching was limited to methods based on highly individual and intuitive approaches, rather than on developments in sport psychology and coaching and training science. Recommended methods for decreasing errors tended to be unsupported by data.

Persistent errors, by definition, are resistant to correction by conventional means and have therefore become the target for special treatment, notably behaviour modification. Studies of the application of behaviour modification to skill development in sport claim that manipulation of behavioural consequences, e.g., reward, negative reinforcement, behaviour shaping and modeling, can strengthen or suppress target behaviours. Studies in workplace behaviour change also claim similar results.

The advent of task analysis or behavioural checklists in sport which detail a description of each action needed to accomplish a target performance has led to the increasing application of behavioural psychology to skill correction and development in a limited but growing range of sporting endeavours including football, gymnastics and tennis; soccer; sprinting; swimming; and classical ballet.

The major criticisms of these studies is that, with few exceptions, most of them can be challenged on methodological grounds in that they are limited by small sample sizes, lack of a control group and lack of statistical validation of findings.

The limitations of behavioural approaches to error correction and skill development are also apparent in these studies. The manipulation of behavioural consequences inherent in operant approaches is a limitation, in that the locus of control is not readily transferred from external to internal sources of reinforcement.

Operant interventions also require a controlled environment that is not always attainable, e.g., the choice and timing of reinforcements can be critical to success or failure. Incorrect use of reinforcements by inexperienced practitioners of operant techniques is another problem. When skill improvement was observed, the effects were often small to moderate, took a long time to achieve, and even when performance improvement was more rapid, coaches as well as athletes, found the correction methods too difficult, too time consuming or unpleasant to implement, making them of limited practical value. These findings are mirrored in workplace training and educational settings.

Another approach to skill correction is one in which the coach, trainer or teacher directly confronts the person with his or her technique fault or misconception and its consequences. The assumption is that when the person is confronted with the error of his or her ways, he or she can no longer deny it, and he shock value of this revelation stimulates a desire to change and improve. Unfortunately, conflict teaching or confrontational teaching, as it has been called, has limited success even though it is quite widely used. It can also have undesirable side effects with people who are already under great pressure to improve and demoralised by their apparent inability to change.

So, if behavioural approaches to correcting error patterns tend not to be used by coaches, trainers and teachers, and conflict teaching methods do not work, what is the alternative? Almost all current methods of technique correction and skill development that are used rely on practice or repetition of the right way. Skill drills, as they are known in sport, are excellent for providing practice and improving learning of new skills, but practice drills are not very effective when trying to correct a technique problem or change an existing skill.

A fresh explanation for the persistence of error patterns

Mental mechanisms that affect learning and memory have been studied by psychologists since 1920. One of these mechanisms, proactive inhibition (PI), is an inhibitory interference effect on learning and memory produced by, "conflicting associations that are learned prior to the learning of the task to be recalled". In effect, if what the person has learned previously is in conflict (disagreement) with the new material he or she is trying to learn, PI is involuntarily activated and exerts an inhibitory effect on the recall of the new material, causing it to undergo accelerated forgetting and leading to the person reverting to their old way of doing things.

The main effect of PI on new, conflicting, learning is that although it does not prevent learning from occurring, it prevents the association of conflicting ideas. This, in turn, dramatically slows down change and improvement, resulting in a greatly prolonged adaptation period to the new learning.

During this adaptation period the person appears to "forget" the new technique or skill and repeatedly falls back to old ways.

These inhibitory effects on recall of new learning and the associated problems with transfer of learning to new settings have been well documented in many experimental manipulations of the proactive inhibitory mechanism. However, the implications of such interference for error correction and habit reversal and for ways to accelerate learning were not sufficiently explored.

Studies of proactive inhibitory effects on skill acquisition in sport are scarce. In a controlled study of the effects of learning a forehand tennis ground stroke on the subsequent learning of a backhand, a significant and enduring proactive habit interference effect was observed. These results confirmed earlier demonstrations of proactive interference in non-sport motor skills.

Old Way New Way^® theory has extended the PI story and produced an explanation of why habitual errors in conceptual understanding and skilled performance are so difficult to eradicate. The main principles are stated here, in the context of skill correction.

1. Repetition of a skilled behaviour pattern is a sign that learning has occurred, so consistent, habitual technique errors indicate the presence, rather than the absence, of learning. In this case, what the person knows is how to do it "wrong". This becomes the starting point for skill correction
2. PI does not prevent learning from occurring, it merely prevents the association of conflicting ideas
3. When new information or ideas disagree or conflict with what the person already knows, this conflict generates inhibition of the new learning. This leads to confusion, slower performance, and an increase in errors. PI produces accelerated forgetting of the new technique or skill, and within minutes or hours the person appears to forget what he or she has been taught
4. It does not matter whether what the person already knows is correct or incorrect, because PI protects all prior knowledge and skills as it cannot discriminate between what is "right" and what is "wrong", in a given context
5. PI therefore exerts a maintenance effect over prior learning, inhibiting change and preserving erroneous (as well as correct) knowledge and skills
6. PI is an involuntary mechanism over which we have little or no control. It is universal but most people are not even aware they have this mechanism hard-wired into their brain
7. There appears to be considerable variation within the population in the level of PI one inherits. Individuals with higher PI are less likely to achieve successful behaviour change (e.g., error or skill correction, habit reversal) under conventional correction methods
8. Performance becomes cue-dependent, and the person reverts to prior behaviour patterns when the coach's or trainer's presence is withdrawn, thus inhibiting transfer of learning to other settings and ensuring that the erroneous knowledge and behaviour continue to resist correction
9. This is why, "old habits die hard."

The emphasis in Old Way New Way^® is on what the person can do, not on what the person can't do. For example, whereas in conventional coaching the coach would say, "He can't tackle properly", in Old Way New Way^® coaching the coach would say, "He consistently tackles too high; he should be tackling lower."

The powerful effect of proactive interference observed in non-sport motor skills has also been demonstrated in sports performance settings. Over the years, various practitioners and researchers have suggested that the person's errors should be recognised and incorporated into the skill correction process. For example,

• In one sport study, ball throwing became more accurate when the thrower practiced"short" and "long" throws as well as "on target" throws
• Practicing wrong movements was found to be useful in another study, because it clarified the difference between a good and a bad performance, but this strategy was likely to be useful only as long as the performer was aware that an "error" was being made
• Deliberate exaggeration of the performance error was found to assist skill correction in tennis
• "Contrast drills", in which the athlete performed the action in the "right" way followed by performance of the "wrong" way, improved sport performance.

The enormous significance of error patterns for human learning and continuous improvement, and the impact on skilled performance, is reflected in the vast amount of literature on behaviour change, particularly in the fields of education, psychology, sports coaching, and the enhancement of skilled performance. Despite the impact of this universal problem, Old Way New Way^® is the first and still the only systematic education and training methodology that offers a cost-effective and user friendly solution.

Skill correction and development using Old Way New Way^®

Old Way New Way^® protocols are prepared prior to an intervention, called a learning trial, and are tailor made for a specific performance difficulty or conceptual misunderstanding where change is required. Since no two performance situations are exactly alike, the Old Way New Way^® practitioner needs to be thoroughly grounded in the theory and practice of this learning methodology in order to diagnose each performance problem and design an appropriate and effective Old Way New Way^® intervention.

An Old Way New Way^® protocol that is specifically devised for technique and skill correction in sport typically has the following steps:

1. Diagnosis of the performance problem or technique difficulty.
2. Improvement of bodily awareness.
3. Systematic and progressive discrimination.
4. Generalization or practice.
5. Follow-up correction, if necessary.

Conventional technique correction used by sports coaches almost always follows the basic sequence described earlier, namely,

1. Tell them what they are doing wrong and explain why it is wrong;
2. Develop the person's awareness of what they are doing wrong;
3. Show him the right way and explain why this way is better;
4. Ask him to copy it and give them corrective and supportive feedback; and
5. Then get him to practice the right way.

One of the main differences between Old Way New Way^® coaching and training and conventional coaching and training is that Old Way New Way^® requires the individual to mediate the differences between the "old" and the "new" ways. "Mediation" in this context, refers to the person's ability to "stand between" the old and new actions and to sort out their differences. However, while a "mediator" is typically a third party negotiator between two opposing parties, in Old Way New Way^® the mediator is the learner him- or herself.

If the old way persists after four or five fortnightly repeat sessions then this strongly suggests that the original error diagnosis was incomplete or faulty. Much depends on the experience and ability of the coach or trainer, the athlete and the Old Way New Way^® practitioner (the coach or trainer him- or herself), to jointly bring their expertise to bear on the situation so they can accurately;

1. Identify and analyse the performance error;
2. Identify and demonstrate the substitute action required; and
3. Describe, and elicit from the learner, the essential physical and psychological differences between these "right" and "wrong" ways of performing the action sequence.

Studies of the effectiveness of Old Way New Way^® in many different performance settings including Olympic sport coaching, schools and workplaces, and the results of numerous field trials, consistently report that after one successful correction session lasting from 20 minutes to an hour or so, the person has:

1. An 80% probability of performing in the new way, and a 20% probability of still doing it in the old way, when compared with conventional skill correction.
2. There is also a 90% probability of self-detecting an old way when it occurs and of self-correcting it. This further accelerates learning.
3. Spontaneous recovery of the old way can be expected at two to three weeks after the original learning trial, and if it occurs is easily dealt with.
4. Achievement of full correction and eradication of the technique or skill problem is influenced by how much the learner practices the new way after the learning trial.
5. Everything being equal, more practice means that additional learning trials may not be necessary. However, with highly complicated performance skills it may require from two to five learning trials spaced at fortnightly intervals, to achieve full correction.

A new model for coaching, teaching, training and learning

1. Old Way New Way^® offers an entirely new approach to skill development, technique correction, the correction of misconceptions and other performance difficulties, whether these be physical or mental.
2. Although highly innovative, this learning method is readily integrated into what coaches, trainers and educators normally do in their quest for skill development and continuous improvement.
3. Old Way New Way^® is a unique example of successful collaboration between researchers and practitioners to design the most effective learning protocols.
4. Old Way New Way^® is basically a Neo-Constructivist model - the person is the one who is responsible for learning, understanding and changing.
5. The coach's or trainer's ability to identify and diagnose the error or technique problem is critical, as is his or her ability to identify, explain and demonstrate to the learner the "correct" technique. This befits the educator's role as the expert.
6. The learner can be empowered through Old Way New Way^® to take on personal responsibility for improving.
7. The learner's prior knowledge and skills (incorrect as well as correct) must be incorporated into any teaching strategy.
8. If no conflict is likely between new and pre-existing knowledge and skills, then a conventional teaching strategy is OK and new knowledge and skills will consolidate and build on old.
9. However, when prior knowledge and skills are different, and likely to conflict with the new, the learner needs to follow prescribed Old Way New Way procedures, and not just attempt to practice the new while ignoring pre-existing knowledge and skills.

The learner does not have to be doing something wrong, before he or she can benefit from Old Way New Way^®. The Old Way New Way^® learning method can speed up all kinds of learning and accelerate change in many contexts, apart from error correction.

Transition training is another kind of learning that greatly benefits from Old Way New Way^®. For example in sport, when the person has to change over to new procedures due to a change of rules, or has to adopt a new style of play because of a change from one system to another, e.g., changing from rugby league to rugby union, or from gridiron to Australian Rules football, PI will try to slow down the desired change, create confusion, slow performance and increase errors. Old Way New Way^® gets round this problem, bypasses PI and makes faster change possible. You do not have to be doing something wrong before you can benefit from Old Way New Way^®; you simply have to want to change what you are currently doing.

Old Way New Way^® applications

Old Way New Way^® enables individuals, groups or teams to change and permanently improve their performance more quickly in sport, education, health and workplace training and safety. Old Way New Way^® has accelerated adaptation to new skills, work procedures and routines, new systems, new equipment and new techniques.

For example, Old Way New Way^®:

• assisted Jason Gillespie, world class cricketer, to overcome his injurious delivery action that threatened his career, and corrected Paul Wilson's back foot no-balling difficulty;
• improved the coaching effectiveness of cricket coaches at the South Australian Cricket Association
• improved performance in swimming, soccer, baseball, golf, and other competitive sports
• improved the coaching and the performance of Olympic level athletes in javelin, hammer throwing, soccer, track and field, swimming, and others
• improved rugby players' ball handling, tackling and kicking technique;
• improved diving technique of athletes at the South Australian Sports Institute;
• enabled casting pit operators at the KAAL Pty Ltd aluminium plant, a joint venture of Kobe Steel and Aluminium Company of America, to abandon their unsafe hazardous materials handling practices and quickly and permanently adopt recommended practice;
• corrected helicopter pilots' instinctive but incorrect and life-threatening reaction to rotor stall; and
• corrected fork truck drivers' habitual, high-maintenance driving practices.

History of an innovation

From its initial development in the 1970s by Harry Lyndon, and its humble beginnings in schools, Old Way New Way^® was gazetted by the South Australian Education Department and was taught to teachers in that state as part of their professional development. It later became known as the Conceptual Mediation Program (CMP) but remained basically a "sleeper" innovation for the next 15 years.

This all changed in 1996 when competitive Australian National Training Authority Research Advisory Council (ANTARAC) funding was won to conduct an experimental field trial of the CMP.

This highly successful trial involved 34 students and 12 teachers at Southbank, Yeronga, and Brisbane Institutes of TAFE. The convincing results of this trial were presented at the 1996 ANTA National Conference. This led to an invitation by KAAL Pty Ltd, a joint venture of Kobe Steel and ALCOA, to conduct a workplace trial at their aluminium factory at Point Henry in Victoria. The outstanding success of this trial, which involved changing casting pit operators' habitual work practices in dealing with hazardous materials, led to ALCOA purchasing further CMP training.

One thing led to another and expressions of interest came in from other major Australian industrial and retail enterprises, and sporting organisations.

Old Way New Way^®, as it came to be known, was finally put on the map. The world-wide application of the Old Way New Way^® approach to continuous improvement and change management became clear when Paul Baxter was invited by the Royal Aeronautical Society to address an international gathering of 95 civilian and military pilots and trainers at the September 1998 Human Factors Conference at Gatwick Airport, London.

How far Old Way New Way^® has come and the wide range of successful applications of this learning method are shown in the list of published research, school and workplace trials and case studies on this website.

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Published research on Old Way New Way^® learning

Published research and case studies underpinning the Old Way New Way^® method of improving transfer of learning

Rapid technique correction using Old Way New Way: Two case studies with Olympic athletes.

Yuri Hanin, Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Finland. Tapio Korjus and Petteri Jouste, Finnish Sports Association, Finland; Paul Baxter, personalbest.com.au, Brisbane.

NOTE: This coaching science research study won 2nd prize in the 2004 European Athletics Association Coaching Science Awards.

Abstract of this paper which was published in The Sport Psychologist, 2002, 16, 79-99.

Exploratory studies examine the effectiveness of Old Way New Way^®, an innovative meta-cognitive learning strategy initially developed in education settings, in the rapid and permanent correction of established technique difficulties experienced by two Olympic athletes in javelin and sprinting. Individualized interventions included video-assisted error analysis, step-wise enhancement of kinaesthetic awareness, re-activation of the error memory, discrimination and generalization of the correct movement pattern. Self-reports, coach's ratings and video recordings were used as measures of technique improvement. A single learning trial produced immediate and permanent technique improvement (80% or higher correct action) and full transfer of learning, without the need for the customary adaptation period. Findings are consistent with the performance enhancement effects of Old Way New Way^® demonstrated experimentally in non-sport settings.

South Australian Sports Institute—accelerated skill correction in elite sport

Kylie Baker (South Australian Sports Institute) & Gillian Tan (University of Southern Queensland).

Mediational Learning (Old Way New Way^®) for accelerated skill correction: A new paradigm and technique for elite sport. Paper presented at the Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2001: A Sports Medicine Odyssey. Challenges, Controversies and Change. 23-27 October 2001, Burswood International Resort Casino, Perth, Western Australia.

Extract

Mediational Learning has been applied by the psychologists at the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) with a variety of different athletes. These athletes include the following:

• baseball players (pitching technique)
• basketball players (shooting technique - 3 point line, and jump shots)
• divers (hurdle technique on spring board, take-off technique on platform, and body posture)
• rowers (catch position)
• soccer players (kicking technique)
• volleyball players (hitting and serving technique, as well as team concepts and beliefs).

Old Way New Way.^® Sports Coach. 2003, Vol. 25, No. 4. National journal of the Australian Sports Commission

Compares Old Way New Way^® sports coaching with conventional coaching, and discusses the highly effective use of the technique with Jason Gillespie, first class cricketer, and with Olympic athletes in Finland.

Rapid correction of start technique in an Olympic-level swimmer—a case study using Old Way New Way^®

Hanin, Y., Malvela, M., & Hanina, M. (2003, in press). Rapid correction of start technique in an Olympic-level swimmer: A case study using Old Way New Way. Journal of Swimming Research.

The Airline Training Pilot. 2nd edition. July 2000. Tony Smallwood. Chapter 6 (part)

This chapter on the psychology of learning enhancement contains a discussion of Old Way New Way^® and how it can be used to accelerate adaptation to change in flight training. Various examples of learning situations requiring adjustment to change including transitioning, flight deck automation, upgrading and platform migration, among others, are discussed. www.ashgate.com

Book Summary

Technological advances in the operation of modern jet transport aircraft have challenged and drawn attention to the shortcomings in current flight desk operational procedures. This comprehensive second edition presents new techniques in training, learning and teaching in the airline environment. By focusing attention on how to improve overall training effectiveness and efficiency, and with practical demonstrations of the importance of human factors, resource and error management, it will become a standard reference in the pursuit of better flight safety. It also includes a specific emphasis on teaching methods and techniques, providing an all round introduction to airline pilot training for training pilots and aspiring airline pilots worldwide. Email: orders@bookpoint.co.uk.

Changing work habits: More gain, less pain. Australian Safety News, October 2000, pages 58-59. National Safety Council of Australia Ltd

Graham Weaver, Training Coordinator, KAAL Pty Ltd (a joint venture of ALCOA and Kobe Steel), Point Henry, Geelong, Victoria, Paul Baxter and Harry Lyndon, Department of Education, Training & Employment, Adelaide, South Australia, write about a new process of skill mediation (Old Way New Way^®) which aims to change behaviour at work in the name of good OHS.

Performance coaching in lawn bowls: Series of five articles on the use of Old Way New Way^® in sport coaching

This article first appeared in seven monthly parts in the Queensland Bowler from December 1998 to June 1999, inclusive and was featured in the coaching section of the Royal Queensland Bowls Association web site.

Old Way New Way^® applied to sport coaching involving physical and mental skills. These five articles explain the theoretical background of Old Way New Way and how this innovative learning system can be used to accelerate skill development and correction in lawn bowls. Mental as well as physical skills are dealt with in detail. The examples can readily be transferred to performance enhancement and technique correction situations in other sports. Competitive players and athletes as well as sports coaches will find this material useful.

Australian National Training Authority Research Advisory Council Research Grant No. 95026: Skill correction and accelerated learning in the workplace

Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 2004, 56, 1, 21-50.

This project addressed an issue of national concern in skills training in the workplace, namely the rapid and permanent eradication of persistent errors and bad habits in the learning of manual skills. This problem is not only evident in workplace learning but is also highly prevalent in off-the-job learning. This project constituted an experimental comparison of the relative effectiveness of skill correction using the Conceptual Mediation Program and its primary component, Old Way New Way^® (O/N), to that obtained by conventional error correction methods. Using a comparative methods research design incorporating a control group, vocational education students (n=34), representing a broad range of 8 skill types, were recruited and randomised to one of the two error correction modes, or to the control group in which no error correction was employed. Old Way New Way^® was significantly better than conventional error correction methods at improving skilled performance. This was immediate after one ten minute session, was maintained over three post-test periods, and was irrespective of skill type being considered.

Correction of systematic errors in subtraction

Baxter, P and Dole, S. 1990. Working with the brain, not against it: correction of systematic errors in subtraction. British Journal of Special Education Research Supplement. 17, 1, 19-22

Abstract

Studies of error patterns in subtraction have provided evidence that, contrary to popular belief, few errors are random or careless. In fact, many errors are conceptual and learned. They have become habitual and consistent with advancing years in school. The existence of these learned errors has implications for corrective attempts in that, despite intensive instructional intervention, many students revert to their own wrong methods. This experimental study employed a randomised, multiple baseline between-groups design, incorporating a control group, to compare the effectiveness of attempts to eradicate consistent subtraction errors through two different methods. Our method challenges conventional explanations of learning failure, as being due to intellectual or perceptual deficits. It proposes that material previously learned interferes with current learning or the recall of recently learned similar materials (proactive inhibition / interference). The methodology aims to overcome proactive inhibition, the effects of which are a prime cause of most learning difficulties. The results appear to show the superiority of the Old Way New Way^® method for Type E algorithms. These findings are tentative only, given the small sample (n=6) and the improvement observed in the post-test score of one member of the control group. On the basis of these findings, further studies seem warranted with larger samples and with a wider range of systematic errors in computations.

Error patterns, conceptual change and accelerated forgetting: Another dimension to the jigsaw of effective conceptual mediation in mathematics

Paper presented at the Fourth International Seminar, From Misconceptions to Constructed Understanding, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, June 13-15, 1997.

Abstract

Traditionally, students' mathematics errors and misconceptions were viewed from a negative perspective, taken as indicative of the absence of knowledge/meaning. Constructivist theory offers a more positive perspective, suggesting that errors are an individual's current interpretation of a mathematical situation and thus are indicative of knowledge. Error pattern research has prompted new approaches to intervention, with errors/misconceptions increasingly being used as the beginning point for intervention. The success of such approaches has been mixed with error recidivism being a common occurrence. A further dimension to this field is offered by Conceptual Mediation (CM) [which uses Old Way New Way^®] (Lyndon, 1995). The theoretical background of CM states that accelerated forgetting of new material occurs if it conflicts with pre-existing knowledge. Errors/misconceptions therefore are retained even in light of rational argument. In this paper, error pattern research and conceptual change programs are briefly summarised, followed by a discussion of the psychological basis of CM.

Changing misconceptions—a challenge to science educators

International Journal of Science Education. 1990, 12, 2, 167--175. Changing misconceptions: a challenge to science educators. Jack A. Rowell, Chris J. Dawson and Harry Lyndon, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Abstract

In this paper we examine misconceptions as personal explanatory knowledge judged by experts in the field to be in error. To those who have constructed them, misconceptions are not recognizable as different from any other explanatory knowledge: they are formed by the same process, take part in the generation of new knowledge and consequently are difficult to replace. As with construction, replacement involves the processes of equilibration. To date, educational strategies promoting equilibration in the classroom have attempted this through co-operative debate, using the teacher as chairman and agent provocateur. Here, we briefly discuss the epistemological status of an alternative to co-operative debate that is more teacher centred, and report on a comparative empirical test of the educational potential of the two strategies.

Conceptual mediation—a new perspective on conceptual exchange

Research in Science Education, 1997, 27(2),157-173. Conceptual Mediation: A New Perspective on Conceptual Exchange. Chris Dawson and Harry Lyndon, University of Adelaide

Abstract

For the last two decades science education researchers have had a major interest in identifying students' intuitive understanding of a wide range of scientific topics and in reducing the difficulties involved when an attempt is made to replace these views by scientific understanding. Different approaches to this latter problem have been adopted by researchers, with strategies ranging from the pragmatic and atheoretical to those with a stronger theoretical foundation, usually based on some form of constructivism. In this paper we report on a novel theoretical perspective which takes as its foundation the psychological research of about three decades ago which investigated "forgetting," and the important effects of previous knowledge in this process. In particular this new perspective demonstrates that, under normal teaching conditions. and through the process of proactive inhibition, the student's prior knowledge can accelerate the forgetting of the newly taught scientific ideas. The paper first develops the theoretical position and then shows that a change in teaching approach can take advantage of the differences between the students' prior understanding and the scientific view to ensure more efficient replacement. Following this an overview of the new methodology, as it is currently being used on a trial basis by science teachers in South Australia, is briefly introduced.

Conceptual mediation program in science and mathematics—effects on motivational indices and strategy awareness

Roger Henderson, William Light School, DETE, Geoffrey Higgs, University of South Australia, E. Harry Lyndon, Support Services, DETE, David Wilkinson, William Light School, DETE, Gregory C. R. Yates, University of South Australia. Paper presented at the Department of Education Training and Employment Research Expo, Adelaide, South Australia, March 1999.

Abstract

In this project Conceptual Mediation (CM) is described as an innovative program in high school science and mathematics teaching. CM incorporates aspects of an earlier teaching method (oldway/newway) but stress is placed upon students assuming greater responsibility for "mediating" their learning. In the present study we surveyed CM and non-CM classes on attitudes toward school. Relative to their peers, students with high levels of exposure to CM exhibited (a) enhanced scores on a questionnaire measure positive work attitudes, (b) enhanced personal agency, (c) reduced levels of negative leaning indicators (e.g. school antipathy and malaise). The CM students also gave more adaptive responses on an open-ended item tapping awareness of problem solving strategies. These beneficial effects were evident, however, only in the case of students in year 10 who had participated in the program over a two-year period.

Changing students' concepts—the Conceptual Mediation Program. Workshop for science teachers Years 8-10

Harry Lyndon, David Lloyd and David Wilkinson. South Australian Science Teachers' Association Journal, Semester 2, 1995.

Abstract

The conference program was subtitled "Why won't they learn, when I've taught my best?" Nearly all science teachers have at some stage in their career asked themselves this question. The conference flier seemed to promise conferees an answer to this deeply felt question This may account for the significant interest shown in this workshop. 20 TRT's were made available through funding by CEASA which were distributed on a "first come etc" basis. Attendance at the workshop was excellent with 35 conferees on day one and 34 of those same hard worked conferees on the second day. The presenters take this opportunity to thank all of those involved for their cooperation, interest, enthusiasm, "great feedback" and for also giving up two of their valuable evenings to share in this landmark conference. Let's start with what some of the conferees had to say about the program.

The Way Ahead: Old Way New Way^® and Mediational Learning.Paul Baxter. Classroom. Issue 7, 2000, pages 12 - 13. Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd

Dr Paul Baxter, author of How To Get the Most Out of Your Child's School: 60 Questions Parents Ask Teachers. Fontana/Collins, 1983.

"Notice how children and adults keep misspelling the same word in the same wrong way? Learn why students keep falling back to old ways and improve classroom learning with Old Way New Way.^® "

The Education Boom. Jarek Czechowicz. Management Today. November-December 2000. Pages 12 and 13. Australian Institute of Management

Knowledge is an enterprise's greatest resource. Online management development is fast and cheap. By 2002, more than half of all training will be technology based, with the remainder taking place in the classroom.

This article discusses the proactive habit interference mechanism that slows down change and continuous improvement in knowledge and skills. The solution, Old Way New Way^®, accelerates human learning and allows the rapid uptake of new knowledge and skills.

Computer Corner review of Personal Best Spelling by Bill Gillespie .Education: Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation. 16 October, 2000, page 24

".... This program takes a no nonsense approach to the teaching of spelling... This is not a game dressed up as educational software.... One advantage of this approach is that it can correct persistent, learned and habitual spelling errors... It is worthwhile visiting the website just to read the information on the Old Way New Way^® approach to learning."

Mediational Learning: Old Habits No Longer Die Hard. Dr Paul Baxter. Write On, 2000, 18, 1, 10 - 15. Queensland Council For Adult Literacy Newsletter

Discusses the theoretical background to Mediational Learning (Old Way New Way) and its application to adult literacy teaching. Contains 32 references to research journal articles.

Complete bibliography on Old Way New Way^®

The following PDF document contains all known published work on Old Way New Way^®, as at 15 August 2008.

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