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Demonstration of habit pattern interference with learning: Why old nail biting habits die hard

Habit pattern interference

• Habits interfere
• Demonstration
• Instructions

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Old nail biting habits die hard

An experienced flight instructor once said this about the tendency for people to keep falling back to old ways - "The problem is not learning the new; it's forgetting (unlearning) the old!"

This section provides a hands-on demonstration of how habit patterns interfere with our attempts to learn something new; to change and improve what we know and do.

Old Way New Way^® Learning offers a new theory of learning and a cost-effective, user friendly method of continuous improvement and change management for nail biting and other habit patterns.

Endorsed by Australian State governments as an innovative and effective learning method, Old Way New Way^® is a fascinating synthesis of past and emerging research into the psychology of learning, sports psychology, training science and coaching science.

Old Way New Way^® explains why adaptation to change takes so long; why performance slows and errors increase during the transition; why people initially appear to improve and then forget their learning when left to their own devices and placed under production of work and life; and why they keep falling back to old ways under conventional, i.e., currently available, methods of behaviour change.

Old Way New Way^® empowers people, accelerates learning and reduces the extended period of adaptation to change that typically accompanies conventional change methods. Understanding, knowledge and skills improve quickly so habit patterns are changed quickly and permanently.

These claims are backed up by evidence from Government funded research, workplace trials, published experimental research in professional refereed journals, independent university evaluations, and case reports.

 

Why old nailbiting habits die hard

This is a demonstration of the brain mechanism that makes nail biting and other habits die hard

Try your hand at learning some new tricks and test your own readness for change. This brief colour chart demonstration is used in all our courses and workshops. It is a good conversation piece as well as offering an opportunity for self reflection.

This simple but intriguing activity is a demonstration of the powerful interference effect caused by prior learning.

Exactly what it means for you personally will become clearer after you have done the two short tasks and you interpret your scores.

Now, please follow these instructions carefully.

INSTRUCTIONS

PLEASE NOTE: You need a colour monitor and a tables capable browser to do this demonstration.

TASK 1

You will need a watch to record how long it takes you to finish this task. Record the time to the nearest second.

read each word aloud as you normally would when reading. Start at the top, go left to right, line by line, as quickly as you can and correct any mistakes. For example, the first word is "green", the second is "brown" and so on. Remember to record how many seconds you take to finish.

TASK 2

Again, use your watch to record how long you take to finish this task.

This time, instead of reading the word, you have to name the colour of the ink in which each word is written, going left to right, line by line, as quickly as you can and correct any mistakes. Speak up and say it aloud for greater effect. For example, the colour of the first word is "pink" so you have to say "pink" instead of "green". The second is "red", not "brown" and so on. Do the whole list from top to bottom. Don't forget to record how many seconds it takes you to finish.

green	brown	black	blue	green	pink
blue	pink	brown	green	black	red
blue	red	black	brown	black	pink
green	red	brown	green	pink	blue
red	blue	black	pink	green	brown
red	green	green	black	brown	blue
pink	red	blue	brown	green	black
pink	black	blue	brown	red	red
pink	red	pink	black	brown	brown
green	green	red	pink	brown	blue
black	pink	blue	red	pink	black
black	brown	green	blue	red	blue

Now proceed to an interpretation of your scores—a new theory and explanation of why nailbiting habits die hard; and how to use this knowledge to overcome nailbiting and other personal habits.

March 11, 2008

Nail biting habits die hard

Once established, habit patterns like nail biting are hard to break.

The typical advice from family and friends to increase awareness, concentrate and self-correct is usually not very effective.

The person may appear to improve when in supportive company but repeatedly falls back to old ways when left to their own devices or placed in stressful situations.

Transfer of learning from such "helpful" encounters to everyday life and work is consequently poor.

Other treatments like medication, bad tasting chemicals, behaviour therapy, plastic teeth guards, hypnosis, willpower or nagging can be unpleasant, expensive or slow to show an effect.

Old habits die hard. There's got to be a better way.

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

1. A new perspective on habit patterns like nail biting.

2. A fast, practical, low-cost and user-friendly method of eradicating nail biting.

3. An effective strategy for unlearning all kinds of other bad habits.