Learning
hideLearning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.
Human learning may occur as part of education or personal development. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how learning occurs is part of neuropsychology, educational psychology, learning theory, and pedagogy.
Learning may occur as a result of habituation or classical conditioning, seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals and humans. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness. There is evidence for human behavioral learning prenatally, in which habituation has been observed as early as 32 weeks into gestation, indicating that the central nervous system is sufficiently developed and primed for learning and memory to occur very early on in development.
Play has been approached by several theorists as the first form of learning. Children play, experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact. Vygotsky agrees that play is pivotal for children's development, since they make meaning of their environment through play.
For more information about Learning, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with learning
Nerve-cell transplants help brain-damaged rats fully recover lost ability to learn
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 09, 2009 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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Nerve cells transplanted into brain-damaged rats helped them to fully recover their ability to learn and remember, probably by promoting nurturing, protective growth factors, according to a new study.
Cut out the (estrogen) middleman
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 08, 2009 |
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Estrogen seems to act like a middleman in its positive effect on the brain, raising the possibility that future drugs may bypass the carcinogenic hormone altogether while reaping its benefits.
It's all in your head. No, really: How mental imagery training aids perceptual learning
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 03, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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Practice makes perfect. But imaginary practice? Elisa Tartaglia of the Laboratory of Psychophysics at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and team show that perceptual learning—learning ...
Grant to help zoo visitors learn more about science with their cell phones
Nov 30, 2009 |
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Zoo visitors may soon use their cell phones to "Call the Wild" as part of a project led by University of Florida researchers to help the public learn more about the nature of science.
Tech and teens
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 30, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Digital media use is transforming the way young people learn, UCI researcher Mizuko "Mimi" Ito has found, and schools should take note.
Study shows new brain connections form rapidly during motor learning
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 29, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New connections begin to form between brain cells almost immediately as animals learn a new task, according to a study published this week in Nature. Led by researchers at the University of Cal ...
Search engines are source of learning
Nov 19, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
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Search engine use is not just part of our daily routines; it is also becoming part of our learning process, according to Penn State researchers.
Intel Reader Transforms Printed Text to Spoken Word (w/ Video)
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Nov 11, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
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Intel Corporation today announced the Intel Reader, a mobile handheld device designed to increase independence for people who have trouble reading standard print.
Unravelling the pathology of dementia
Nov 10, 2009 |
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Combination therapies to tackle multiple changes in the brain may be needed to combat the growing problem of dementia in ageing societies, according to a study published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. The st ...
Virtual reality games could help bullying victims
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Virtual reality games could help children to escape victimisation and bullying at school, according to researchers at the University of Warwick.
Amyloid beta protein gets bum rap
Nov 09, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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While too much amyloid beta protein in the brain is linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease, not enough of the protein in healthy brains can cause learning problems and forgetfulness, Saint Louis University scientists ...
Mood improves on low-fat, but not low-carb, diet plan
Nov 09, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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After one year, a low-calorie, low-fat diet appears more beneficial to dieters' mood than a low-carbohydrate plan with the same number of calories, according to a report in the November 9 issue of Archives of Internal Me ...
Developmental delay could stem from nicotinic receptor deletion
Nov 08, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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The loss of a gene through deletion of genetic material on chromosome 15 is associated with significant abnormalities in learning and behavior, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in a report ...
Wimba providing classroom alternative in light of flu outbreaks
Nov 04, 2009 |
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As U.S. cases of the H1N1 flu steadily rise, colleges and universities nationwide are arranging other means of connecting students with their peers, professors and administrators, should an outbreak occur.
Back to (brain) basics
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 03, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In his own words, MIT neuroscientist Mark Bear admits he did not "wake up one day and say 'Hey, I'm going to cure autism.'" But, after decades of painstaking basic research on how the brain ...
