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Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behavior, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences.

There is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event (e.g. being burned by a hot stove), but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences. The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be "lost" from that which cannot be retrieved. Human learning begins at birth and may even start before birth and continues until death as a consequence of ongoing interactions between people and their environment. The nature and processes involved in learning are studied in many established fields (including educational psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, Cognitive science, and pedagogy), as well as emerging fields of knowledge (e.g. with a shared interest in the topic of learning from safety events such as incidents or accidents, or in collaborative learning health systems). Research in such fields has led to the significant identification of various sorts of learning. For example, learning may occur as a result of habituation, or classical conditioning, operant conditioning or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in more cognitively complex animals. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness. Learning that an aversive event cannot be avoided or escaped may result in a condition called learned helplessness. 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 a form of learning. Children experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact through play. For Vygotsky, however, play is the first form of learning language and communication, and the stage where a child begins to understand rules and symbols. This has led to a view that learning in organisms is always related to semiosis, and is often associated with representational systems/activity.

The predictability and timescale of environmental change are considered key determinants of when learning should evolve, with learning favored in environments that are neither completely stable nor entirely unpredictable.

Non-associative learning can be divided into habituation and sensitization.

Active learning occurs when a person takes control of their own learning experience.

Observational learning is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others.

Play, as it pertains to humans as a form of learning is central to a child's learning and development.

Episodic learning is so named because events are recorded into episodic memory, which is one of the three forms of explicit learning and retrieval, along with perceptual memory and semantic memory.

In formal learning, the learning or training departments set out the goals and objectives of the learning and oftentimes learners will be awarded with a diploma, or a type of formal recognition.

Non-formal learning is organized learning outside the formal learning system.

Informal learning is less structured than "non-formal learning". This type of learning does not require a professor of any kind, and learning outcomes are unforeseen following the learning experience.

According to experts in natural learning, self-oriented learning training has proven an effective tool for assisting independent learners with the natural phases of learning.

Dialogic learning is a type of learning based on dialogue.

Furthermore, Perkins and Salomon (1992) suggest that positive transfer in cases when learning supports novel problem solving, and negative transfer occurs when prior learning inhibits performance on highly correlated tasks, such as second or third-language learning.

Alternatives to rote learning include active learning and meaningful learning.

A direction for future research is testing whether circadian rhythms in plants modulate learning and behavior and surveying researchers' definitions of "cognition" and "learning".

Quick Facts

• For example, learning may occur as a result of habituation, or classical conditioning, operant conditioning or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in more cognitively complex animals.
• Alternatives to rote learning include active learning and meaningful learning.
• Non-formal learning is organized learning outside the formal learning system.
• There is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants.
• This type of learning does not require a professor of any kind, and learning outcomes are unforeseen following the learning experience.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Learning". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.