i noticed that after the holidays my math plummeted and teachers told me its because of the break i took… why does this happen and how can i regain those skills acquired prior to the break
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Anecdotally I think there’s an element to how much the skills were used as well. It’s believed that although “use it or lose it” is true – it’s not the entire picture. Massive chunks of the pathway probably still exist as a complete circuit, we just prune the first couple of connections when it’s not used.
An example of this for me was I started a job up at a previous company 5 years after I left. Operationally, not much changed in that time. I practically jumped right in with no training (systems operations and everything). I had also had this job for 5 years before leaving.
On the flip side, if I’m relatively new at something and take a break (in this case Final Fantasy XIV) if I took even a 2 week break it took me a bit to re-learn all my job rotations and everything.
So, yes, there’s definitely a component of “use it or lose it” – but that’s not the whole picture. Another component is how much you used that skill. Maybe the bicycle analogy is a bit old, but a more applicable one would be “It’s like driving a car”. I would almost guess that everyone that learned to drive and did it daily would be incapable of forgetting how to drive unless there was an injury or pathology.
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