[CW] Copying Morse Without Really Trying! Duncan Fisken, G3WZD

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Copying Morse Without Really Trying! Duncan Fisken, G3WZD

PDF attached. (which is formatted better, below is just a copy and paste of
the PDF.)

The following article had its genesis in a recent thread on the FISTS
reflector, sparked off by a comment I posted to the effect that I realized
I had been unconsciously copying CW in the background while doing something
else. I often have the rig on in the background, tuned to one of the CW
‘watering holes’, while working on another project in the shack. This time
however, the ‘light-bulb’ moment came when I was doing a newspaper
crossword puzzle with a Morse tutor running in the background. The tutor
was sending random callsigns at 30wpm and 25wpm Farnsworth (I am working on
my contesting skills!), and it suddenly dawned on me that I had been
copying quite a few of the calls without really trying, at speeds somewhat
beyond my comfort zone. The following has been authored by Chris Pearson,
G5VZ a practicing Neuropsychotherapist and enthusiastic CW operator. Chris
kindly gave his blessing to my suggestion that I submit it for publication
in Solid Copy. I hope it is of interest to the membership at large and the
Advisor community in particular; it certainly interested me! The
Neuroscience of Copying Morse Chris Pearson, G5VZ A great deal of what we
do in life is achieved through non-conscious processing. What is often
called the subconscious mind. That applies to driving sometimes: how often
does someone arrive at their destination and realize they have no real,
conscious memory of the journey? But driving, generally, is done without
conscious thought – working those pedals, and steering wheel and all that,
would be overwhelming if you actually thought about it all the time. There
are two types of memory: explicit memory consists of event memories –
autobiographical memory – and facts you learn. Knowing the capital cities
of all the countries of the world is an achievement of explicit memory.
Knowing that PARIS represents a 50-unit, conveniently standard Morse word
is an explicit memory. Implicit memories are neural networks that are
activated without thinking about them. Some things, like riding a bike,
begin in the conscious domain and often seem very clumsy before they become
implicit. When you hear ‘Paris’ accurately in Morse characters received at
30 wpm, that’s an achievement of implicit memory. These are the learned
skills promoted by many of the old telegraphy texts. Until really quite
recently it was thought that this process happened in younger people: the
brain reached a point when it had achieved all it could and, from then on,
it was a slow, inexorable decline. Research since the mid-nineties has
clearly shown that neuroplastic activity occurs in the brain from well
before birth until the moment a person breathes their final breath. It can
be convenient to think about explicit memory as being something that
happens in our conscious mind while implicit activity is subconscious.
Subcortical parts of the brain that process sensory information and respond
implicitly are incredibly rapid – these are structures within the brain
that are essential for many survival responses. It is said that’s the
subconscious is always listening' and that is true. The subconscious
continues to be active even when we are sound asleep – what would hear the
alarm clock if it wasn’t? So we can be confident that a part of our brain
is hearing Morse and recognizing those patterns of sensory information
whatever we’re doing. There’s a picture of the human brain, divided into
three evolutionary parts by Paul MacLean who developed the Triune Brain
Model. We do all our thinking in the cortex which is the most recently
evolved part of the brain and, slow as it is, allows sophisticated thought.
Paleomammalian and reptilian complexes evolved much earlier and are rapid,
and survival-enhancing. The tricky part with Morse is having your cortical
brain (often called the neocortex or the neomammalian brain) keep up. The
non-conscious, limbic structures in the brain are activated and respond in
millisecond timescales. The cortical brain takes almost half a second -
everything we think of as 'now' is, in fact, about half a second ago. Our
mind stitches together neurological events that make us think it's all
happening now and that we exercise some kind of choice or control over many
things that happen without conscious intervention. Catching a ball is a
classic example. It happens faster than our 'smart brain’ can process
events. But we have non-conscious processes that we practice and develop
that make it possible. Try throwing a ball at a baby who hasn't developed
this response. Same with riding a bike - our nervous system and musculature
must respond for balance much more quickly than we can think. I've had
conversations with typists as they bash out documents at unbelievable
speeds and, on one occasion, asked one typist what she was typing: "Oh, I'm
not reading it - I'm typing it." Just like those telegraphists who could
(can?) hold a conversation and copy code simultaneously, the activity
doesn't even need to touch their conscious mind. Copying Morse is the same
as many other neurological activities. It's not the receiving the
characters that's an issue, it's transferring their information content to
the cortex that is the trick! That’s exactly why you may notice that
distracting your cortex makes it easier. Because your cortex believes you
are NOT able to copy that code. If it doesn't notice that you are, then it
won't get in the way. Making the experience fun helps a lot, too! If you
are, say, thinking that you’re comfortable at 15 wpm and you want to
improve, start every practice session at 40 wpm. You'll probably copy
little accurately. Drop down to maybe 30 wpm and notice how you pick up
more. Then at 25 wpm you may well be accurately copying a lot. And you will
probably be surprised at how easy it seems. (I say, 'seems' because in
reality, it 'is.' If someone can do it then, generally speaking, anyone can
do it.) Every time you do this – every time the particular neural network
is activated – tiny cells called glial cells arrive at the synapses between
the activated neurons. These calls have many functions – including the
processing of neurotransmitters – but they also physically glue the neurons
together – axon terminal of one neuron to a dendrite of the next – making
the circuit through the network both biochemically and electrically more
efficient. And faster. Most practice starts slow and speeds up - in exactly
the opposite way to the way brains work. I learnt all this, by the way, not
from a radio ham but a professor of neuroscience who had a great deal of
theory to pass on and some functional MRI scans to prove it.

Biographical Note: Chris Pearson became interested in amateur radio around
the age of 12. He moved from London to Northfleet in Kent and spent many
hours in the shack with Bill, G5VZ. He was taught Morse by Bob, G3ORC (SK)
who had been a RN telegraphist and, after marriage and children, came back
to amateur radio and was licensed M0JRQ. You may have seen the call on the
G-QRP Antenna Handbook and other publications, including compilations of
Drew Diamond's Radio Projects. Having the opportunity to honor Bill and
keep the call G5VZ on the air, Chris is now 100% CW. Although in later
years, Bill was not a fan of the key. As a psychotherapist, Chris gained
Clinical Neuropsychotherapy certification at CDSC at Brisbane Royal and
Women's Hospital, then a post-graduate degree in Neuropsychotherapy in
Queensland, Australia in 2018. He works as a Neuropsychotherapist.

Chris Pearson, G5VZ
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