From Expectation to Visualization

I continue on with part III of Confidence Maximizes Cognition.  The fundamental point of the series of posts is to show what processes make up confidence, and how improving our confidence in specific scenarios can lessen emotional detraction from performance given a specific scenario.

How often have you stated “I just can’t picture that”, when someone has told you about an idea, or something they are trying to describe to you?

The Science

You may or may not have read about, or heard about any of several tests and research studies that have tested the power of visualization.  As this series of posts is about how confidence maximizes our cognition, and visualization is the next step on the path, I will build a case for the power of visualization, and the crucial role it plays in confidence, and cognition.

The majority of the studies on the power of visualization have the same theme.  One group practices an activity for a given amount of time, a second group visualizes the activity for a specific amount of time, and a third group, the control group, does nothing.  The participants are then asked to perform the activity, such as shooting free throws, together.  The group that did the actual practice usually ends up with about an 80-85% accuracy rating.  The group that only did the visualization scores 5-7% lower than the practiced group, and the control group scores significantly lower than that.

The value of mental practice, of visualization is crucial to forming confidence for things far more important than free throws.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, we are trying to build confidence to maximize our mental capacity for given situations, crucial, important situations.  Being able to mentally “see” a successful performance of an act, and to actually achieve it are linked.

Have you ever been successful at completing a difficult task when you couldn’t visualize the act, or the successful completion of it?  If you did come out a success, would you agree that it may have been more luck, or coincidence than true skill?  How much confidence will you take from an experience like that?  Could you bet your life on that blueprint?

Learning to Fly

When I was  just learning to fly multi-engine aircraft we had to do what was called a VMC demo.  The VMC demo was crucial to safe operations in propeller driven aircraft when one of your two motors quit.  It was even more crucial in aircraft that did not have counter-rotating engines (gave more torque to the rolling motion of the aircraft).  To keep this really simple I will avoid the Wikipedia Aviation explanation and give you the short version.  If an engine quits, the other one will create a rolling moment in the direction of the dead engine.  At a certain airspeed, you will no longer be able to counteract the rolling motion, and you guessed it, over you go.  This is how many aviators meet their fate in light twin engine aircraft.  It is very hard to see the condition if you do not practice it occasionally.  To the new pilot, it is extremely hard to see the initial symptoms of the problem.  It is absolutely crucial to recognize this condition, and that is why we practice it so frequently in prop driven aircraft.   I had the misfortune of rolling up on the ramp of a small lakeside airport where a family had suffered a stall-spin into the water only moments before my arrival.  Truly horrifying.

As a student, you rely on your instructor to show you the path, and give you some great insight as to how to visualize the maneuvers before you actually go out and “fly” them.  Especially one as potentially dangerous as the VMC demo.  My instructor for this course was a nasty gentleman.  He spent little time imparting wisdom on his students.  I remember him yelling a lot, but not really teaching much.  I remember the first time we went out to fly the VMC demo.  It wasn’t pretty.

I configured the aircraft, did my clearing turns, then we simulated an engine failure by reducing the throttle to idle.  We set up on a heading, and allowed the aircraft to slow toward the minimum controllable airspeed.   Somewhere about 8 knots above the speed I was looking for, the instructor started screaming “RECOVER”!  I recovered the maneuver and endured a tirade from the right seat that kind of shook me.  “What the hell are you thinking?”,  “We could have been killed!”, he shouted.

At this point, Im just trying to figure out who almost shot us down, or if there was a UFO I might have missed.  It turns out he was yelling at me to recover because I was getting too close to a roll off.  The point of a VMC demo is to show the recovery at the first sign of the rolloff, not 5 knots prior.  I hadn’t even seen the initial signs of the roll off.

We made our way back to the airport because after all of his screaming and shouting, I had decided I had enough for the day.  I just couldn’t focus.  It is nerve racking enough to be learning the precision flying, but when you have a pitbull strapped in the seat next to you, it makes for a very stifling learning environment.   Now I know how Will Ferrell felt with the mountain lion in the racecar in Talladega Nights.

When we got back to the airport we had a very interesting debriefing.  He claimed that his reaction was to keep us from getting into a bad position.  I argued that the demo called for the acquisition of the initial signs of rolloff prior to recovery.  If I can’t see it (I couldnt visualize it, because I had no point of reference), how will I know what to look out for?

Also, how could I concentrate on practicing complex maneuvers and doing any type of real practice when I have this bonehead screaming at me?  How long do you think he remained my instructor?  Yep, that afternoon was all for him.

Amazingly, my next instructor was an outstanding gentleman, and he walked me through a few visualizations of the event prior to going out to the plane.  We went over the setup a few times, all the way through the demo.  He had me stand up and walk him through it in the briefing room a few times, citing visual cues, feel cues, and recovery maneuvers.  Then we went out to the plane.

When we got to the practice area, I could literally see what I was going to do just a step ahead of doing it.  I had a mental checklist of things I was looking for to keep the demo safe, and pick up the value of practicing such a crucial piloting skill. Also, he had me talking, or narrating what I was doing, and what I was looking for.  Thus he knew I understood.  (Also preparing me to teach it as well)

The demo went well that afternoon, and provided me with valuable experience that enhanced my abilities to cope with what would be a horrible event to have happen in real life.  By building the visualization in advance, I freed up the brainspace that my anxiety was living in previously.  My instructor gave me a visualization of a successful outcome.  We repeated it till I knew it cold.  In the few seconds you have to act in such a horrible situation, the confidence gained from mental practice gave me the clarity to SEE the situation for what it truly was.  THAT is experience worth having.

If my visualization was, as my first instructor would have had me do, to run away prior to recognition of the condition, how would that empower me if I found myself slightly past my point of practice?  Would a visualization of early recovery serve me there?  Building the visualization of success is crucial to confidence, and confidence is what saves you when you are in a tough spot.

The opposite of confidence is doubt, and you can’t afford that passenger when the chips are down.  As you can also see, pre-programming a visualization of performance will give us the presence to achieve our successes.  Many mistake that we must have success to have confidence.  I argue that you must have confidence to have success.

The Resiliency Path Training model is focused on creating a presence, a path that allows us to bring our best performance to the show, right here, right now, no matter what.  Visualization is the minds view of our performance, outstanding performance is more likely to result in outstanding success.

The next step in building confidence to maximize our cognition is the analysis of the Granddaddy of them all….  Our Beliefs.  Beliefs can amount to quicksand, or rocket fuel in our pursuit of our purpose.   More on the next entry.