Why do we never lose certain skills we have learned, even if we haven’t practiced them for a long time. like for example riding a bicycle, and we lose some, like a new language we learned 10 years ago but can’t remember anything about it now?

Question

Why do we never lose certain skills we have learned, even if we haven’t practiced them for a long time. like for example riding a bicycle, and we lose some, like a new language we learned 10 years ago but can’t remember anything about it now?

In: 5857

Answer 1

I think it’s also important to remember that with the language example, it is replaced by the used language. You don’t replace how to ride a bike with some other way to ride a bike and then use it daily. Driving on the right vs left is a better transportation analogy to the language one. If you grew up driving on the right, then move somewhere else that drives on the left – you will catch yourself making ‘right hand driving’ mistakes. Hitting the wipers instead of turn signal, glancing the wrong way first before making a turn, etc. And definitely don’t drink/smoke/be tired and drive at night without other cars about or you might end up like this idiot on the wrong side of the road and not realizing until you reach a stoplight and the lines are on the wrong side of the road. When you are on autopilot or your instincts kick in, you will default to the most used system in your mind.