Autopilot / Muscle Memory

[puff_not_snuff]

Do you find yourself doing things and not actually remember completing the task, etc.? Every morning I make my girlfriend coffee while she walks the dog and start doing something else only to think I forgot to take the moka pot off the stove, rush into the kitchen to find that I had already done so. Not sure if this is somewhat related to a declining memory or perhaps something adjacent to muscle memory. The concept of muscle memory is interesting in itself and makes me wonder about certain aspects of our intelligence which can't be really measured and maybe not all that understood. Octopi seem like they offer a lot of consideration to this sort of less discussed intelligence.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I do things like that all the time. Hell, I barely ever remember driving home.

 

[pappymac]

I've always believed that muscle memory is a factor in how good some people are in what they do. Some have done a task over and over again so many times that it would be hard to say if they actually thought about what they were doing. For example, look at the greatest athletes. They practice what they do so many times that it just becomes routine when they make the shots or throw a perfect pass. I think the same is also true for musicians who play the piano or guitar.

In the more mundane world, one of the examples would be someone who is a very fast typist. There are people who type well over 160 words per minute with 100% accuracy because muscle memory allows them to. (I looked it up, the world's fastest typist typed 217 words per minute without a mistake.)

 

[Zero]

I have the same experiences. Maybe a certain aspect or level of consciousness is at rest while muscle memory and the subconscious are at work? Something I do all the time at the grocery store is catch a falling item off the shelf(without thinking about it) that my peripheral vision picks up, and sometimes I do it with my left hand even though I'm predominantly right handed( sometimes I get some wide-eyed looks or a 'Hey, good catch!). But ya, I have those moments of lost time and things getting done.

 

[LotusEater]

From the interweb

Automaticity is the ability to do something without thinking about it. It occurs with virtually all overlearned behavior.

Overlearned behavior is behavior practiced well beyond the point of just barely learning it. As you execute a skilled behavior again and again, it gradually requires less of your attention.

Finally it becomes automatic. It becomes second nature, as people say, functioning almost like a built-in reflex.

Automaticity frees up resources. If your behavior is automatic, your mind can wander to other things, or you can devote your attention to challenges requiring conscious intervention.

An example would be musician's ability to improvise, producing beautiful and innovative music spontaneously, comes after long hours of practice. Overlearning make scales and other familiar sequences automatic, so they do not require detailed attention that would impede the creative process.

@puff_not_snuff
You must be well practiced and very skilled at making coffee- either that or you’re just not awake enough to pay attention because you haven’t had a coffee yet

 

[kcghost]

As you get older you will find yourself in a room of your house without clue as to why you went there.

 

[Pipeoff]

I do things like that all the time. Hell, I barely ever remember driving home.

Cos : are you on your home blends or brew ?

 

[LotusEater]

As you get older you will find yourself in a room of your house without clue as to why you went there.

I do this all the time.
I hate it when I go downstairs to get something and then forget what it was I went to get - I usually don’t remember until I’ve gone back upstairs.

 

[ThermionicScott]

I think novelty is needed for forming new memories. If nothing stood out about making the coffee this morning, your brain didn't feel the need to store the experience for long-term. But if you had had an idea for solving world hunger while you were making coffee, the fact that you were making coffee at the time would probably have been stored along with it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

But if you had had an idea for solving world hunger while you were making coffee

I always solve world hunger in the shower, but then I forget what it was by the time I am looking for my socks.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

The responses in this thread has some interesting information on the subject. So, I am not crazy?! How disappointing...

Maybe I should shout some Seinfeld-esq phrase out loud every time the coffee is finished like JAVATASTIC! or FLÜGELSCHLAG!

@LotusEater Actually, I only really drink tea now. I get up the earliest here, like 5-5:30am (not because I have to go anywhere that early but because I have grown to like it) and the first thing I do is make a sort of shot with matcha and tap water to get the day going. I was having this crazy intestinal pain a couple times of year that would last 6 hrs or so. Really crazy IBS type thing but without any sort of explosiveness. Anyways, I mostly eliminated a bunch of things from my diet and it decreased in frequency but since I got off the java except for an espresso out here and there and I have not had a bout in over a year now. I only put that out there in case someone else might be suffering from something similar.

 

[mortonbriar]

Jason Bourne put out a series of documentaries on this type of thing.

 

[mbmoehl]

Sometimes when driving and in deep conversation with my wife I start heading to work or someplace I typically go without thinking, like I'm on autopilot. She's usually quick to correct me, but once in a while she likes to see how long it takes me to figure it out on my own.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Sometimes when driving and in deep conversation with my wife I start heading to work or someplace I typically go without thinking, like I'm on autopilot. She's usually quick to correct me, but once in a while she likes to see how long it takes me to figure it out on my own.

I do similar as well... I'm going someplace that is sort of on the way to a place I go frequently and forget that I am not going there and end up missing an exit. Another thing I've noticed in relation to that. Sometimes I'm going to that frequent place and am on a stretch of road I never paid attention to and for a few minutes think I made a wrong turn.