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
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 ...
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) |
0
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 |
not rated yet |
0
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.
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.
Changes in brain chemicals mark shifts in infant learning
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 26, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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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 ...
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 ...
Professor Finally Publishes Controversial Brain Theory
Nov 19, 2008 |
4.3 / 5 (114) |
23
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the late '90s, Asim Roy, a professor of information systems at Arizona State University, began to write a paper on a new brain theory. Now, 10 years later and after several rejections and ...
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.
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 ...
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 ...
Birds in captivity lose hippocampal mass
Oct 12, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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, ...
Virtual education... for free
Jul 31, 2009 |
5 / 5 (15) |
7
They don't offer degrees but then they don't charge tuition either.
Researchers unlock the 'sound of learning' by linking sensory and motor systems
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 02, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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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 ...
