STARS UU7 · 2026-10-21

STARS UU7: Three Stages Did Not Mean Three Moves

Label the states and transitions in a card exercise separately. A short replay shows why counting snapshots can miscount the actions between them.

A learner takes three photographs while organising a practice hand: before sorting, after sorting by suit, and after arranging proposed groups. The folder contains three images. His replay caption says he performed three operations, but the images themselves show only two changes between the recorded stages.

Name the stages

Call the snapshots A, B and C. The change from A to B is sorting by suit. The change from B to C is arranging groups. The starting photograph records a condition; taking it is not an extra card-arrangement operation under the task’s counting convention.

The friends draw arrows between the pictures and write the operation on each arrow. This makes the account readable: a state is what the cards look like, while an operation is what changes that state. A folder count cannot substitute for an action record.

Could more actions have happened?

Yes. Several small rearrangements may occur between two photographs. The sequence alone does not prove there were exactly two physical hand movements. The caption therefore says “two recorded transformations”, rather than claiming a precise movement count that was never observed.

For the next practice, the learner decides what he wants to measure before recording. If he wants a clear explanation, stage photographs may be enough. If he wants to count every move, he needs a continuous log or recording. Choosing the record to match the question prevents false precision later.

STARS UU7: Three Stages Did Not Mean Three Moves

Name the stages

Could more actions have happened?

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