[Elecraft] [OT] increasing CW copy speed: practice slow -v- practice fast

[Kevin Stover]

I have been a proponent of the Koch method.
You start with two letters at the final speed you wish to copy, none of 
this Farnsworth business of fast characters with extra space between 
words to slow the wpm down. You want to learn 40wpm, characters and 
words are spaced for 40wpm. You don't add a letter until you copy the 
original two at 95%.

G4FON makes a fine piece of software specifically designed to support 
the Koch method.

On 12/4/2015 9:21 PM, Robert G Strickland wrote:
> The following comments/questions focus on increasing CW copying speed, 
> not the task of initially learning the code. That said, there may be 
> an overlap between the two tasks.
>
> W1AW starts its CW practice speeds fast and then slows down. 
> Presumably, as the speed get slower the mental demand lessens and 
> copying becomes easier; then, ease of copying starts occurring at 
> higher speeds over time/trials. From my days studying animal learning, 
> I remember significant research to the effect that starting a new task 
> in the easiest form [slow CW speed] lessened/prevented errors and, by 
> the end, resulted in quicker and more accurate learning.
>
> I tend to practice 3-letter groups at 35-40 wpm, 5-letter groups at 
> 30-35 wpm, and 7-letter groups at 25-30 wpm [for better or worse]. 
> This is somewhat geared to DX contesting since call signs are not 
> "words."
>
> All that said, I'm starting to wonder if the animal study folks may 
> have a point. How about the reverse of the above approach. For 
> example, start with 3-letter groups at an error free speed, slowing 
> increasing speed as long as the error rate stays under some value [5%, 
> say]. Keep working at a given speed until the error rate is reached, 
> then increment. Proceed in this fashion until a goal speed is reached. 
> Then, repeat in the same fashion for longer letter groups. The same 
> approach could be used with numbers, complete call signs, and 
> sweepstakes type exchanges.
>
> The general idea is to minimize the error rate so that only correct 
> neural networks are formed in the brain. These can be slowly 
> stretched, perhaps like increasing strength in weight training and 
> increasing range of motion after orthopedic surgery, all the time 
> working at the edge to slowly increase capacity. This might also be 
> applicable to increasing the speed of characters as in the Farnsworth 
> method. I'm interested in what folks think.
>
> ...rober


-- 
R. Kevin Stover
AC0H
ARRL
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441


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