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
Developmental delay could stem from nicotinic receptor deletion
17 hours ago |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
0
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 |
not rated yet |
0
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) |
0
(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 ...
Researchers unlock the 'sound of learning' by linking sensory and motor systems
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 02, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
Learning to talk also changes the way speech sounds are heard, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at Haskins Laboratories, a Yale-affiliated resear ...
Study examines how much is too much visual information when it comes to learning
Oct 27, 2009 |
4 / 5 (3) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. But with advances in computer graphics capabilities, more recent cognitive theory related to multimedia learning suggests that very ...
Changes in brain chemicals mark shifts in infant learning
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 26, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
0
When do you first leave the nest? Early in development infants of many species experience important transitions—such as learning when to leave the protective presence of their mother to start exploring the wider world. Neuroscientists ...
Nanowire biocompatibility in the brain: So far so good
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 22, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
The biological safety of nanotechnology, in other words, how the body reacts to nanoparticles, is a hot topic. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have managed for the first time to carry out successful experiments involving ...
Smart rat 'Hobbie-J' produced by over-expressing a gene that helps brain cells communicate
Oct 19, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
5
Over-expressing a gene that lets brain cells communicate just a fraction of a second longer makes a smarter rat, report researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University.
APP -- Good, bad or both?
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 18, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
New data about amyloid precursor protein, or APP, a protein implicated in development of Alzheimer's disease, suggests it also may have a positive role -- directly affecting learning and memory during brain development. So ...
Declines in other thinking and learning skills may precede memory loss in Alzheimer's disease
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 12, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
Cognitive abilities other than memory, including visuospatial skills needed to perceive relationships between objects, may decline years prior to a clinical diagnosis in patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a report ...
Birds in captivity lose hippocampal mass
Oct 12, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (4) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- Being in captivity for just a few weeks can reduce the volume of the hippocampus by as much as 23 percent, according to a new Cornell study.
Scans show learning 'sculpts' the brain's connections
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 09, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
1
Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be "white noise" measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chieti, Italy, ...
New findings about brain proteins suggest possible way to fight Alzheimer's
Oct 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
The action of a small protein that is a major villain in Alzheimer's disease can be counterbalanced with another brain protein, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in an animal study.
Education Expert Says Longer School Hours Alone Will Not Solve Educational Crisis
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Oct 05, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- President Barack Obama's plan to extend the school year to increase achievement among American students would only help bridge the gap between American students and those in other countries ...
Scientists identify protein that enhances long-term memory by controlling rest intervals
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 01, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (4) |
0
As most good students realize, repeated studying produces good memory. Those who study a lot realize, further, that what they learn tends to be preserved longer in memory if they space out learning sessions between rest intervals. ...
