In the Aviation Instructor's Handbook there's a section about the importance
of Psychomotor skills in flying. (Brain-body coordination and the ability
to learn or improve.) Basically, it says to write the word "Learning" 15
times using your non-writing hand. Theoretically, you will be able to
write quicker and more legibly with practice, but the point of the exercise
is that not only does your physical coordination improve, but your brain
developed new concepts about how to form the letters, etc.

My thought is, I wonder if this exercise could be used to demonstrate to a
potential and uncertain student that they -can- develop the skills to learn
to fly.
Assuming the person actually improves his legibility and speed by the end of
the exercise, you could say "See? You've demonstrated the ability to learn
and develop psychomotor coordination. Had your writing gotten slower and
worse over the exercise, maybe not, but you've already shown that you're
trainable." Make sense? Or "Well, you improved rapidly which indicates
you're a thinker and a doer, which means it might take you less time than
the average to get your license."

So if that's all valid then, by extension, what if the potential student's
sample remains static gets WORSE during the exercise, either out of
impatience, frustration or ineptitude? I bet it would be interesting to
compare the results of some sort of study to see. The real "loser" might be
the person in ground school who lacks the patience or motivation to complete
the exercise, which might indicate trouble down the road. Maybe attention
deficit, substance abuse, laziness, whatever...

My wife laughed at me because as I thought about it out loud, (her degree is
in psychology) I realized that I hadn't done the exercise myself. That
forced me to do it because I didn't want to be that "loser" who simply
didn't want to bother. So I sat down and tried it and, sho 'nuff, improved
legibility and speed.

Are there exercises such as this?

Have a great week everybody!

-c
CP-ASEL-IA