Rote is a word meaning learning without comprehension. In other words if you do something enough times you should learn how to do it, but you may never understand the mechanics of how or why it works. Rote is often used in the training of animals. The animal learns that if it completes certain steps it will be rewarded, yet does not have the capacity to understand why or how this is accomplished.
As older age creeps up on me I find that rote comes into play more and more as time passes. For instance, I have owned and operated computers for over twenty years now. My first was a Apple II E which I obtained about 1990. I have learned over the ensuing years to operate newer models in a fairly decent manner. Yet the past couple of years I have noted certain operations that used to be almost automatic no longer are.
I have an involuntary twitch in some of my fingers, most notably the right forefinger. I find myself ending up somewhere I didn't want to go if I hover the mouse over a link while reading a page.
ReplyDeleteIt may be because you have had so many years of knowledge imparted upon you that it's all caught inside your head and you're just running out of room.Do you have an escape valve to let some of the old stuff out so you can concentrate better on the new?
ReplyDeleteRuth, The very same thing happens to me with both fingers I use on the mouse. I often go wandering off into la la land wondering (sort of) how I got there. I try to remember to keep the pointer where it will do no harm.
ReplyDeleteRosalee, It often seems exactly like that, but that is not the true answer. I don't fully understand it, but it has to do with chemicals within the brain not binding the way they did when I was younger. Thus it is more difficult to learn new things because they refuse to commit to memory.
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