Name the three stages of Fitts and Posner's model of skill acquisition and identify a defining feature of each.

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Multiple Choice

Name the three stages of Fitts and Posner's model of skill acquisition and identify a defining feature of each.

The main idea here is how a motor skill develops through stages as practice builds automatic control. In the cognitive stage, you’re figuring out what to do: actions are deliberate, you rely on verbal instructions or rules, big mistakes happen, and performance is mentally demanding and variable. In the associative stage, you start to refine the movement, connect cues to the appropriate actions, and reduce errors as you get smoother and more consistent. You rely more on feedback from your own body and less on conscious thought about every step. In the autonomous stage, the skill becomes automatic; you can perform with little conscious effort, often while attending to other tasks, and you’re able to adapt to small changes without breaking the flow. This option correctly names all three stages—cognitive, associative, and autonomous—and highlights that practice leads to progressive automation of the skill. The other choices describe only parts of the process or focus on a single stage, rather than the full sequence and its overall progression toward automatic performance.

The main idea here is how a motor skill develops through stages as practice builds automatic control. In the cognitive stage, you’re figuring out what to do: actions are deliberate, you rely on verbal instructions or rules, big mistakes happen, and performance is mentally demanding and variable. In the associative stage, you start to refine the movement, connect cues to the appropriate actions, and reduce errors as you get smoother and more consistent. You rely more on feedback from your own body and less on conscious thought about every step. In the autonomous stage, the skill becomes automatic; you can perform with little conscious effort, often while attending to other tasks, and you’re able to adapt to small changes without breaking the flow.

This option correctly names all three stages—cognitive, associative, and autonomous—and highlights that practice leads to progressive automation of the skill. The other choices describe only parts of the process or focus on a single stage, rather than the full sequence and its overall progression toward automatic performance.

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