Related topics: memory , brain , neurons , hippocampus , dementia
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
Professor Finally Publishes Controversial Brain Theory
Nov 19, 2008 |
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(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 ...
Study shows new brain connections form rapidly during motor learning
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 29, 2009 |
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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 ...
Changes in brain chemicals mark shifts in infant learning
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 26, 2009 |
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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 ...
Smart rat 'Hobbie-J' produced by over-expressing a gene that helps brain cells communicate
Oct 19, 2009 |
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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.
Birds in captivity lose hippocampal mass
Oct 12, 2009 |
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(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 |
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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, ...
Rats' mental 'instant replay' drives next moves
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Aug 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have found that rats use a mental instant replay of their actions to help them decide what to do next, shedding new light on how ...
Virtual education... for free
Jul 31, 2009 |
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They don't offer degrees but then they don't charge tuition either.
Learning is social, computational, supported by neural systems linking people
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jul 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Education is on the cusp of a transformation because of recent scientific findings in neuroscience, psychology, and machine learning that are converging to create foundations for a new science ...
From a Queen song to a better music search engine (w/Video)
Technology / Computer Sciences
May 15, 2009 |
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At a recent IEEE technology conference, UC San Diego electrical engineers presented a solution to their problem with the song "Bohemian Rhapsody,"—and it's not that they don't like this hit from the band Queen. ...
Scientists ID gene key to Alzheimer's-like reversal
May 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has now pinpointed the exact gene responsible for a 2007 breakthrough in which mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease regained ...
Nine new X chromosome genes associated with learning disabilities
Apr 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A collaboration between more than 70 researchers across the globe has uncovered nine new genes on the X chromosome that, when knocked-out, lead to learning disabilities. The international ...
Workhorse immune molecules lead secret lives in the brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 30, 2009 |
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Molecules assumed to be in the exclusive employ of the immune system have been caught moonlighting in the brain - with a job description apparently quite distinct from their role in immunity.
Psychologists reveal the un, deux, trois of learning a second language
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Parlez-vous français? If you were quick at learning foreign languages at school, it could be because your brain has an enhanced ability to remember sequences.
Researchers identify a protein critical for memory, learning
Biology /
Feb 24, 2009 |
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Researchers from the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) have made a breakthrough discovery that may eventually change the way physicians approach treatment of learning and memory defects ...
