encoding a new habit. It is why the students who took tons of photos
improved their skills while those who merely theorized about perfect
photos did not. One group engaged in active practice, the other in
passive learning. One in action, the other in motion.
All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to
automatic behavior, a process known as automaticity. Automaticity is
the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step,
which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over.
It looks something like this:THE HABIT LINE
FIGURE 11: In the beginning (point A), a habit requires a good deal of effort
and concentration to perform. After a few repetitions (point B), it gets easier,
but still requires some conscious attention. With enough practice (point C),
the habit becomes more automatic than conscious. Beyond this threshold
—the habit line—the behavior can be done more or less without thinking. A
new habit has been formed.On the following page, you’ll see what it looks like when researchers
track the level of automaticity for an actual habit like walking for ten
minutes each day. The shape of these charts, which scientists call