Example When I learned to type, I'd silently rehearse "H is right index finger" before each keystroke. Stop the self-talk and I couldn't hit anything. Now I type without thinking — and the moment I consciously try to locate H, my hands stall. Same verbalization. Opposite effect. Observation Fitts and Posner (1967, Human Performance, Brooks/Cole) described three stages of motor learning. In the cognitive stage, verbal self-instruction tends to be necessary — the learner relies on language to organize action. In the associative stage, verbalization recedes as environmental cues link to movements. In the autonomous stage, performance becomes automatic, and verbal mediation may interfere rather than help. Minimal interpretation The verbalization that scaffolds learning at one stage tends to disrupt it at another. Same tool, opposite effect depending on when it's deployed. Question Motor learning has a clean stage-dependent inversion.…