What Does It Mean to Learn?
What does it mean to Learn?
Learning is an incredibly complex process that does not have a clearly defined biochemical or physiological mechanism of action. I suspect if you asked a cohort people what it means to learn you would get many divergent, yet similar definitions. In my opinion learning can be many things: instant, gradual, external, or internal. Yet beneath these straightforward criterion there is one unifying principle about learning –it results in an intrinsic change in a subject. Once again, this change through learning can encompass many components of a person and may take the form of a behavioural change, a change in ability or skill, and/or a change in the way one perceives their environment.
In its most simple form, learning can be considered to consist of bringing about a change in behaviour in an organism resulting from a stimulus. An example of such learning would be recalling the pain of picking up a recently boiled kettle, and deciding next time to use an oven glove to protect your hand. In a more scientific setting, you may (somewhat unfortunately) experientially learn to avoid mixing bleach with acidic solutions. In the prior extreme examples the change in behaviour is brought about by the subject’s ability to remember and recall an overwhelmingly negative experience that could potentially result in personal harm. It is therefore likely that a change in behaviour would quickly be observed, demonstrating a conscious linking of stimulus to outcome. At this stage of learning the subject doesn’t need to know why or how something works, but just that it does. The observed change in behaviour indicates that a memory has been laid down and can be recalled in the appropriate circumstances. Thus demonstrating a central facet of learning, the ability to absorb, recall, and use information that has been previously presented in the correct situation. However, when you further examine that seemingly simple process it appears that there are several
Learning is an incredibly complex process that does not have a clearly defined biochemical or physiological mechanism of action. I suspect if you asked a cohort people what it means to learn you would get many divergent, yet similar definitions. In my opinion learning can be many things: instant, gradual, external, or internal. Yet beneath these straightforward criterion there is one unifying principle about learning –it results in an intrinsic change in a subject. Once again, this change through learning can encompass many components of a person and may take the form of a behavioural change, a change in ability or skill, and/or a change in the way one perceives their environment.
In its most simple form, learning can be considered to consist of bringing about a change in behaviour in an organism resulting from a stimulus. An example of such learning would be recalling the pain of picking up a recently boiled kettle, and deciding next time to use an oven glove to protect your hand. In a more scientific setting, you may (somewhat unfortunately) experientially learn to avoid mixing bleach with acidic solutions. In the prior extreme examples the change in behaviour is brought about by the subject’s ability to remember and recall an overwhelmingly negative experience that could potentially result in personal harm. It is therefore likely that a change in behaviour would quickly be observed, demonstrating a conscious linking of stimulus to outcome. At this stage of learning the subject doesn’t need to know why or how something works, but just that it does. The observed change in behaviour indicates that a memory has been laid down and can be recalled in the appropriate circumstances. Thus demonstrating a central facet of learning, the ability to absorb, recall, and use information that has been previously presented in the correct situation. However, when you further examine that seemingly simple process it appears that there are several