Unconscious - conscious competence

[dth]

The main value of commentary is to increase concentration.

Everyone has different abilities with regard to the skill of being able to put the verbals together but if on an advanced test for instance, all that is being assessed is the ability to do such verbalisation then the value of the commentary is, in my opinion, reduced.

[waremark]

A fascinating thread, thanks all.

I have thought that the process of becoming an advanced driver involves moving from the unconscious competence of an experienced driver, back through a more conscious level of competence and back to a level of heightened awareness, where you have a much higher awareness of everything which is going on without this requiring much mental effort. It is therefore possible to talk about what is going on also without requiring much mental effort.

I now realise that this model may only work for some drivers, and that the heightened awareness is likely only to be about the higher level decision making (eg factors affecting speed and positioning, such as hazards and dealing with traffic) rather than the lower level decision making, such as how to change gear.

[waremark]

This may be of relevance. I recently had two separate assessments for two different bodies.

For one of them I was required to do a commentary. I was told it was a very detailed commentary covering what I saw, what I might expect, what I was going to do and what I was thinking. All conscious processes. What I did not mention was when I did something, unconscious competence. So for example in the commentary I would mention I was going to select 2nd gear and the reasons for doing this but I did not say "I'm changing gear now, clutch in, matching revs, selecting 2nd, clutch to bight etc." I was marked down for this and advised that if I reduced my pace I could talk through the gear change as I did it.

I have never heard a suggestion of doing that sort of commentary - which I had to work hard at to give my children their first driving lessons! Was this the SA? What do you think the assessor could have been looking for and why?

[foxtrot_mike]

This is interesting, over the last coupld of days i have reduce my conscious state on the physical controls (a bit) and my driving appears much smoother.

This has in turn allowed more conscious observation all good

[fungus]

This may be of relevance. I recently had two separate assessments for two different bodies.

For one of them I was required to do a commentary. I was told it was a very detailed commentary covering what I saw, what I might expect, what I was going to do and what I was thinking. All conscious processes. What I did not mention was when I did something, unconscious competence. So for example in the commentary I would mention I was going to select 2nd gear and the reasons for doing this but I did not say "I'm changing gear now, clutch in, matching revs, selecting 2nd, clutch to bight etc." I was marked down for this and advised that if I reduced my pace I could talk through the gear change as I did it.

I have never heard a suggestion of doing that sort of commentary - which I had to work hard at to give my children their first driving lessons! Was this the SA? What do you think the assessor could have been looking for and why?

When I was doing my Observer training I had to do a similar thing for about 15-20 minutes.

[jcochrane]

This may be of relevance. I recently had two separate assessments for two different bodies.

For one of them I was required to do a commentary. I was told it was a very detailed commentary covering what I saw, what I might expect, what I was going to do and what I was thinking. All conscious processes. What I did not mention was when I did something, unconscious competence. So for example in the commentary I would mention I was going to select 2nd gear and the reasons for doing this but I did not say "I'm changing gear now, clutch in, matching revs, selecting 2nd, clutch to bight etc." I was marked down for this and advised that if I reduced my pace I could talk through the gear change as I did it.

I have never heard a suggestion of doing that sort of commentary - which I had to work hard at to give my children their first driving lessons! Was this the SA? What do you think the assessor could have been looking for and why?

When I was doing my Observer training I had to do a similar thing for about 15-20 minutes.

Hi Mark, yes it was for the SA.

I think Nigel is on the right tracks. When you do the Senior Observer test you are expected to be able to give an instructional style demonstration/commentary. So I guess, therefore, for an IAM SA the examiner thought it would not be unreasonable this competence to be shown.

[jcochrane]

This is interesting, over the last coupld of days i have reduce my conscious state on the physical controls (a bit) and my driving appears much smoother.

This has in turn allowed more conscious observation all good

I think you make a good point it seems that way for me as well. Following on from this it appears that the more that the conscious mind is freed up for observation, judgement and decision making the higher the overall standard of the drive. The really great drivers develop this conscious aspect to such high levels that it appears to be an unconscious competence, by which I mean the drive appears effortless and they never get caught out, everything seem to magically just happen for them. At times it's as if the have some psychic ability. They may look totally calm and unhurried but their conscious minds will be working overtime, picking up fine detail and analysing it.

[Astraist]

This is interesting, over the last coupld of days i have reduce my conscious state on the physical controls (a bit) and my driving appears much smoother.

That is interesting. Often, when a new skill is acquired, the overall driving performance would be lower than normal untill the new skill is adapted. Of course the driver's own sense of progress might not be so well based and third party observation is necessary.

Of course I agree that eventually these skills should be more of a subconscious skill, governed by the driver's observation skills. Neverthelss, what I am getting at is that concious competence of the physical aspects of driving is often left overlooked as a means to improve one's driving, and not for justified reasons, I fear.

[jcochrane]

Neverthelss, what I am getting at is that concious competence of the physical aspects of driving is often left overlooked as a means to improve one's driving, and not for justified reasons, I fear.

Adding to your comment I do think that the unconscious competencies need revisiting regularly. To bring into the conscious mind to either check that it is still OK or if it feels it's not quite working right. Sometimes it takes a good coach to spot if a competence needs a tweak and this is one reason why I support the idea of regular sessions with a good coach. They can identify these slips and get you to think them through in order to resolve and then work on until they become unconscious competences again.

[foxtrot_mike]

That said there's a stretch of road that I travel on regularly mainly during rush hour so heavy traffic, on the approach to a narrower twisty section and due to the slower speed of traffic you need to down shift.

I did the same route yesterday but when the roads were empty, I automatically down shifted, but didn't need to, so that's maybe where you need to think more about your concious state when driving on familiar roads, I guess its easy to get into habits this way on familiar routes.

So when driving on unfamiliar roads your conciousness level varies, or you should vary it.