[martin-adams]

Interestingly, there are some studies that imply that intense thinking about doing an activity (such as a gym workout[1] or hitting a baseball) can improve your physical skills than if you didn't think about it. So this is supporting the notation that you can rewire your brain by thinking, as well as tactile input.

[1] http://nautil.us/blog/just-imagining-a-workout-can-make-you-...

[dkersten]

That’s not really what I’m referring to (or at least, only a little). Once you have a mental model of something, you can for sure think on it or build on it without interaction, but to initially set up our mental models (as children or whatever), I believe it takes interaction. Once we have a base, we can think abstractly about it and learn, but building that base..

Or, put another way, its my belief that you can “_improve_ your physical skills” by thinking, but to buildthe skill in the first place, interaction is necessary.

But even if its not true and interaction isn’t strictly necessary, I think (wrongly oerhaps) that few people would disagree that usually learning by doing is far superior that only learning by thinking/reading/listening/watching. So even if not neccesary, its at least more efficient (doing both together is probably most efficient).