up:: [[Moonwalking With Einstein]] Tags:: #🌱 Links:: [[How do experts continue to improve after initial learning of a skill]] # The three stages of skill acquisition In the 1960s, the psychologists Paul Fitts and Michael Posner theorized everyone goes through three stages when acquiring skills. 1. Cognitive stage 2. Associative stage 3. Autonomous stage During the first phase, known as the “cognitive stage,” you have to put lots of conscious cognitive effort in building a skill as you learn it. During the second “associative stage,” you’re concentrating less, making fewer major errors, and generally becoming more efficient. Finally you reach what Fitts called the “autonomous stage,” when you get so proficient at a skill that you can do it on autopilot.