Learning

Learning is the process by which a person or an animal acquires knowledge, skills, behaviour, beliefs or attitudes, and retains them in a relatively lasting way through experience, practice or observation. It is understood as a change in behaviour, taking that term in a broad sense, so that it covers not only what can be seen but also the modification of strategies for knowing and acting.

The study of learning is old and has developed in several fields at once. Educational psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, cognitive science and pedagogy all examine its processes, and the history of the discipline has seen very different approaches. Some researchers have stressed associations between stimuli and responses, others the active organisation of information by the learner, and others the role of observation and imitation. This variety explains why there are several classifications of learning, ranging from simple forms such as habituation to complex activities such as play, through which young children come to understand rules, symbols and ways of interacting.

A simple example helps make the idea clear: a person who burns a hand on a hot stove learns to avoid it after a single experience, whereas a skill such as playing an instrument develops gradually through repetition and practice. Human learning begins at birth, and according to some studies even before, and it continues throughout life as a result of ongoing interaction with the environment.

Today the debate centres on how motivation shapes learning, on the balance between active learning and direct instruction, on individual differences, and on specific learning difficulties such as reading, writing or attention disorders. Researchers also discuss how to measure accurately what someone has learned, and how much of what seems forgotten is in fact still stored in memory.