In this short reflection I would like
to briefly differentiate the intuition and deliberation characteristics that
Dijkstra et al. have shown in previous articles (Dijkstra et al. 2012; 2013) while trying to apply them to my practice of
dancing. Due to space constriction I will join theory and example. I am a
dancer of Breakdance. Since the
beginning, Breakdance has attracted
me because of the feeling of freedom and spontaneity it provokes in my mind
when I am dancing. Due to I have barely received any formal lesson of Breakdance, I consider myself as an
“intermediate” practitioner (relatively experienced, modest knowledge) using
the Dijkstra categorization. Hardly all the knowledge I have has been obtained
trough trial and error method. I found this method directly related with the
global processing style displayed by intermediate artist who based their
performances and decisions in intuition. According to this, is easily understandable
that when I dance spontaneously, freestyling
in dance terminology, usually I cannot access consciously to what and how I dance
and, afterwards, I cannot remember what I have done. From my point of view,
this is a clear example of how the knowledge acquired by experience is commonly
displayed in an intuitive (global, implicit and unconscious) way. On the other
hand, some time ago, I decided to analyze what I am doing while I train, trying
to reflect on my behaviours and my moves in a more conscious way, using a local
processing style. This way I can access to the knowledge in a more explicit
way, being able to name and describe the steps and moves. So that, in a competition
when I am freestyling I have the
possibility of remember a sequence of steps (set) and perform it at the rhythm of the music in a more
deliberative way. That would be a proof of how the knowledge acquired using a
local processing style can be explicitly stated and analyzed in a more
conscious way, and applied when it is required. To finish with, might be interesting
to remark the point that the intermediate dancer can suffer from deliberation
when he has not analyze their moves and he does not control them in an explicit
and conscious way. That would happen for example in a competition when the
dancer try to remember consciously a set which he has not interiorize using local
processing. The dancer might crashed resoundingly by the mere fact of
remembrance. Given these circumstances, freestyling
may be the most creative and efficient way to perform for intermediate
performers whose main objective is enjoy the moment and let them flow.
References
Dijkstra, K. A., van der
Pligt, J., & van Kleef, G. A. (2013). Deliberation Versus Intuition: Decomposing the
Role of Expertise in Judgment and Decision Making: Deliberation, Intuition, and
Expertise. Journal of
Behavioral Decision Making, 26(3), 285–294. doi:10.1002/bdm.1759
Dijkstra, K. A., van der
Pligt, J., van Kleef, G. A., & Kerstholt, J. H. (2012). Deliberation versus intuition:
Global versus local processing in judgment and choice. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1156–1161.
doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.001
