LEARNING

Acquiring of knowledge: The acquisition of knowledge or skill Acquired knowledge: Knowledge or skill gained through education

IN PSYCHOLOGY change in knowledge: A relatively permanent change in, or acquisition of, knowledge, understanding, or behavior

Learning, acquiring knowledge or developing the ability to perform new behaviors. It takes place in school, outside the classroom, and even people continue to learn throughout their lives.

MEMORY

Ability to retain knowledge: The ability of the mind or of a person or organism to retain learned information and knowledge of past events and experiences and to retrieve that information and knowledge Somebody's stock of retained knowledge: Somebody's stock of retained knowledge and experience Retained impression of event: The knowledge or impression that somebody retains of a person, event, period, or subject

Processes by which people and other organisms encode, store, and retrieve information known as Memory.

Encoding, Storage & Retrieval

Encoding refers to the initial perception and registration of information. Storage is the retention of encoded information over time.

Retrieval refers to the processes involved in using stored information. Whenever people successfully recall a prior experience, they must have encoded, stored, and retrieved information about the experience. Conversely, memory failure for example, forgetting an important fact reflects a breakdown in one of these stages of memory.

Encoding, Storage & Retrieval

Memory is critical to humans and all other living organisms. Practically all of our daily activities talking, understanding, reading, socializing depend on our having learned and stored information about our environments. Memory allows us to retrieve events from the distant past or from moments ago. It enables us to learn new skills and to form habits. Without the ability to access past experiences or information, we would be unable to comprehend language, recognize our friends and family members, find our way home, or even tie a shoe. Life would be a series of disconnected experiences, each one new and unfamiliar. Without any sort of memory, humans would quickly perish.

SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF MEMORY

In this information-processing model of memory, information that enters the brain is briefly recorded in sensory memory. If we focus our attention on it, the information may become part of working memory (also called short-term memory), where it can be manipulated and used. Through encoding techniques such as repetition and rehearsal, information may be transferred to longterm memory. Retrieving longterm memories makes them active again in working memory.

LEARNING AND MEMORY

Learning is closely related to memory, which is the storage of information in the brain. Psychologists who study memory are interested in how the brain stores knowledge, where this storage takes place, and how the brain later retrieves knowledge when we need it. In contrast, psychologists who study learning are more interested in behavior and how behavior changes as a result of a persons experiences.

However, the terms often describe roughly the same processes. The term learning is often used to refer to processes involved in the initial acquisition or encoding of information, whereas the term memory more often refers to later storage and retrieval of information. However, this distinction is not hard and fast. After all, information is learned only when it can be retrieved later, and retrieval cannot occur unless information was learned. Thus, psychologists often refer to the learning/memory process as a means of incorporating all facets of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

FORMS OF LEARNING
There are many forms of learning, ranging from simple to complex. Simple forms of learning involve a single stimulus. A stimulus is anything perceptible to the senses, such as a sight, smell, touch, taste, Hearing or Sound. In a form of learning known as classical conditioning, people learn to associate two stimuli that occur in sequence, such as lightning followed by thunder. In operant conditioning, people learn by forming an association between a behavior and its consequences(reward or punishment). People and animals can also learn by observation that is, by watching others perform behaviors. More complex forms of learning include learning languages, concepts, and motor skills.

1. HABITUATION

Habituation is the tendency to become familiar with a stimulus after repeated exposure to it. A common example of habituation occurs in the orienting response, in which a persons attention is captured by a loud or sudden stimulus. For example, a person who moves to a house on a busy street may initially be distracted (an orienting response) every time a loud vehicle drives by. After living in the house for some time, however, the person will no longer be distracted by the street noise the person becomes habituated to it and the orienting response disappears.

2. SENSITIZATION

Sensitization is the increase that occurs in an organisms responsiveness to stimuli following an especially intense or irritating stimulus. For example, a sea snail that receives a strong electric shock will afterward withdraw its gill more strongly than usual in response to a simple touch. Depending on the intensity and duration of the original stimulus, the period of increased responsiveness can last from several seconds to several days.

3. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

A form of learning, in which a reflexive or automatic response transfers from one stimulus to another. For instance, a person who has had painful experiences at the dentists clinic may become fearful at just the sight of the dentists clinic building. Fear, a natural response to a painful stimulus, has transferred to a different stimulus, the sight of a building. Most psychologists believe that classical conditioning occurs when a person forms a mental association between two stimuli, so that encountering one stimulus makes the person think of the other. People tend to form these mental associations between events or stimuli that occur closely together in space or time.

4. OPERANT CONDITIONING

One of the most widespread and important types of learning is operant conditioning, which involves increasing a behavior by following it with a reward, or decreasing a behavior by following it with punishment. For example, if a mother starts giving a boy his favorite snack every day that he cleans up his room, before long the boy may spend some time each day cleaning his room in anticipation of the snack. In this example, the boys room-cleaning behavior increases because it is followed by a reward or reinforce.

5. LEARNING BY OBSERVATION

Learning by observation differs from classical and operant conditioning because it does not require direct personal experience with stimuli, reinforces, or punishers. Learning by observation involves simply watching the behavior of another person, called a model, and later imitating the models behavior.

FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING ABILITY

A variety of factors determine an individuals ability to learn and the speed of learning. Four important factors are the individuals age, motivation, prior experience, and intelligence. In addition, certain developmental and learning disorders can impair a persons ability to learn.

1. AGE
Animals and people of all ages are capable of the most common types of learning habituation, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning. As children grow, they become capable of learning more and more sophisticated types of information. Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that children go through four different stages of cognitive development.

In the sensor motor stage (from birth to about 2 years of age), infants use their senses to learn about their bodies and about objects in their immediate environments. In the preoperational stage (about 2 to 7 years of age), children can think about objects and events that are not present, but their thinking is primitive and self-centered, and they have difficulty seeing the world from another persons point of view.

1. AGE

In the concrete operational stage (about 7 to 11 years of age), children learn general rules about the physical world, such as the fact that the amount of water remains the same if it is poured between containers of different shapes. In the formal operational stage (ages 11 and up), children become capable of logical and abstract thinking. Adults continue to learn new knowledge and skills throughout their lives. For example, most adults can successfully learn a foreign language, although children usually can achieve fluency more easily. If older adults remain healthy, their learning ability generally does not decline with age. Age-related illnesses that involve a deterioration of mental functioning, such as Alzheimers disease, can severely reduce a persons ability to learn.

2. MOTIVATION

Learning is usually most efficient and rapid when the learner is motivated and attentive. Behavioral studies with both animals and people have shown that one effective way to maintain the learners motivation is to deliver strong and immediate rein forcers for correct responses. However, other research has indicated that very high levels of motivation are not ideal. Psychologists believe an intermediate level of motivation is best for many learning tasks. If a persons level of motivation is too low, he or she may give up quickly. At the other extreme, a very high level of motivation may cause such stress and distraction that the learner cannot focus on the task.

3. PRIOR EXPERIENCE

How well a person learns a new task may depend heavily on the persons previous experience with similar tasks. Just as a response can transfer from one stimulus to another through the process of generalization, people can learn new behaviors more quickly if the behaviors are similar to those they can already perform. This phenomenon is called positive transfer. Someone who has learned to drive one car, for example, will be able to drive other cars, even though the feel and handling of the cars will differ. In cases of negative transfer, however, a persons prior experience can interfere with learning something new. For instance, after memorizing one shopping list, it may be more difficult to memorize a different shopping list.

4. INTELLIGENCE

Psychologists have long known that people differ individually in their level of intelligence, and thus in their ability to learn and understand. Scientists have engaged in heated debates about the definition and nature of intelligence. In the 1980s American psychologist Howard Gardner proposed that there are many different forms of intelligence, including linguistic, logical mathematical, musical, and interpersonal intelligence. A person may easily learn skills in some categories but have difficulty learning in others. See Intelligence.

5. LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

A variety of disorders can interfere with a persons ability to learn new skills and behaviors. Learning and developmental disorders usually first appear in childhood and often persist into adulthood. Children with attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may not be able to sit still long enough to focus on specific tasks. Children with autism typically have difficulty speaking, understanding language, and interacting with people. People with mental retardation, characterized primarily by very low intelligence, may have trouble mastering basic living tasks and academic skills. Children with learning or developmental disorders often receive special education tailored to their individual needs and abilities.