Nature of Skills

A skill is defined as the ability to perform some complex task smoothly and efficiently. Car driving, airplane piloting, ship navigating, shorthand writing, and writing and reading are examples of skills. Such skills are learned by practice and exercise. A skill consists of a chain of perceptual motor responses or, described differently, a sequence of stimulus-response (S-R) associations linked together into a smooth, extended performance. What distinguishes a skill from a single learned response is precisely this chaining — many individual perceptual and motor components must become integrated into one fluent, extended sequence of action …