No subject

>It shouldn't be too hard too explain the "loss of skill"
>phenomenon, from back-to-back instructions on new motor skills,
>that was observed in the study. The explanation shouldn't be
>different from the one for the "forgetting of instructions"
>phenomenon that occurs with back-to-back instructions in any
>learning situation. A logical explanation perhaps for the "loss of
>motor skill" phenomenon, as for any other similar phenomenon, is
>that the brain has a limited amount of working or short term
>memory. And when encountering important new information, the brain
>stores it simply by erasing some old information from the working
>memory. And the prior information gets erased from the working
>memory before the brain has the time to transfer it to a more
>permanent or semi-permanent location for actual learning. So "loss
>of information" in working memory leads to a "loss of skill."

Re the above commentary:

Could'nt you apply the same sort of argument about finite
working memory capacity to finite real-time learning
capacity ?

What about the following hypothesis ?

The brain has a limited real-time learning capacity (say a
few networks in the frontal lobe that can do real-time
learning). This learning is later transferred to other 
brain areas (the areas that will carry out the task in the
future). But these real-time learning networks can be
overwritten when people are exposed to sequences of novel
tasks.

So there could still be a role for real-time learning in the brain.

------------------------------------------------------