Editing Learning (section)

{{short description|Process of acquiring new knowledge}}
{{for|the album by Perfume Genius|Learning (album){{!}}''Learning'' (album)}}
{{redirect-several|dab=off|Learn (disambiguation)|Learned  (disambiguation)|Learners (film)}}
[[File:Cooking contest 140418-N-OX321-101.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|American students learning how to make and roll [[sushi]]]]
{{Cognitive}}

'''Learning''' is the process of acquiring new [[understanding]], [[knowledge]], [[behavior]]s, [[skill]]s, [[value (personal and cultural)|values]], [[Attitude (psychology)|attitudes]], and [[preference]]s.<ref>Richard Gross, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Cle1Fcr_6_QC&pg=PT335 Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231162243/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cle1Fcr_6_QC&pg=PT335 |date=2022-12-31 }} 6E, Hachette UK, {{ISBN|978-1-4441-6436-7}}.</ref> The ability to learn is possessed by [[human]]s, non-human [[animal]]s, and some [[machine learning|machines]]; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain [[plant]]s.<ref>Karban, R. (2015). Plant Learning and Memory. In: ''Plant Sensing and Communication''. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 31–44, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8HOeCQAAQBAJ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231162243/https://books.google.com/books?id=8HOeCQAAQBAJ|date=2022-12-31}}.</ref> Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event (e.g. being [[burn]]ed by a [[Heat|hot]] [[stove]]), but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences.<ref>Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). ''Metaphors we live by''. University of Chicago press.</ref> 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.<ref name="Schacter">{{cite book | title=Psychology, 2nd edition | publisher=Worth Publishers | author1=Daniel L. Schacter | author2=Daniel T. Gilbert | author3=Daniel M. Wegner | orig-year=2009 | year=2011 | page=[https://archive.org/details/psychology0000scha/page/264 264] | isbn=978-1-4292-3719-2 | url=https://archive.org/details/psychology0000scha/page/264 }}</ref>

Human learning starts at birth (it might even start before<ref>{{Cite book|last=OECD|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GSc3ugiJ-VsC&q=learning+before+birth&pg=PA165|title=Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science|date=2007|publisher=OECD Publishing|isbn=978-92-64-02913-2|pages=165}}</ref>) 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]]s, and [[pedagogy]]), as well as emerging fields of knowledge (e.g. with a shared interest in the topic of [[Safety|learning from safety events such as incidents/accidents]],<ref>Sujan, M. A., Huang, H., & Braithwaite, J. (2017). Learning from incidents in health care: critique from a Safety-II perspective. ''Safety Science'', ''99'', 115–121.</ref> or in collaborative learning health systems<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10286| doi=10.1002/lrh2.10286| title=Collaborative learning health systems: Science and practice| year=2021| last1=Hartley| first1=David M.| last2=Seid| first2=Michael| journal=Learning Health Systems| volume=5| issue=3| pages=e10286| pmid=34277947| pmc=8278439}}</ref>). Research in such fields has led to the 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 (activity)|play]], seen only in relatively intelligent animals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1996/1/junglegyms.cfm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011051238/http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1996/1/junglegyms.cfm|url-status=dead|title=Jungle Gyms: The Evolution of Animal Play|archivedate=October 11, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/behavior.php|title=What behavior can we expect of octopuses? |publisher= The Cephalopod Page|website=www.thecephalopodpage.org|access-date=4 May 2018|url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005135515/http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/behavior.php|archive-date=5 October 2017}}</ref> Learning may occur [[conscious]]ly or without conscious awareness. Learning that an aversive event cannot be avoided or escaped may result in a condition called [[learned helplessness]].<ref>{{Britannica|1380861|Learned helplessness}}</ref> There is evidence for human behavioral learning [[prenatal]]ly, 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 [[developmental psychology|development]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Sandman | first1 = Wadhwa | last2 = Hetrick | first2 = Porto | last3 = Peeke | year = 1997 | title = Human fetal heart rate dishabituation between thirty and thirty-two weeks gestation | journal = Child Development | volume = 68 | issue = 6| pages = 1031–1040 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.1997.tb01982.x| pmid = 9418223 }}</ref>

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. [[Lev Vygotsky]] agrees that play is pivotal for children's development, since they make meaning of their environment through playing educational games. 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Sheridan|first1=Mary|title=Play in Early Childhood: From Birth to Six Years|last2=Howard|first2=Justine|last3=Alderson|first3=Dawn|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-83748-7|location=Oxon}}</ref> This has led to a view that learning in organisms is always related to [[semiosis]],<ref>Campbell, Cary; Olteanu, Alin; [[Kull, Kalevi]] 2019. [https://www.academia.edu/41969060/Learning_and_knowing_as_semiosis_Extending_the_conceptual_apparatus_of_semiotics Learning and knowing as semiosis: Extending the conceptual apparatus of semiotics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409140746/https://www.academia.edu/41969060/Learning_and_knowing_as_semiosis_Extending_the_conceptual_apparatus_of_semiotics |date=2022-04-09 }}. ''[[Sign Systems Studies]]'' 47(3/4): 352–381.</ref> and is often associated with representational systems/activity.<ref>Hutchins, E., 2014. The cultural ecosystem of human cognition. Philosophical Psychology 27(1), 34–49.</ref>