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"THE EVOLVING BRAIN", The known and Unknown, R. Grant Steen, 2007, pages 128 - 129
Types of Memory
What Is Learning?
What Is Learning?
Learning comes in many forms and has many definitions, but learning can be thought of as the retention of explicit and implicit memories. An explicit memory is an image in the mind or something that can be described in words; it is constituted by an object, a place, or an event, and it has a certain concreteness to it. An implicit memory is harder to define, as it may not even enter conscious awareness; it can be a bias or habit of thought, or it can even be an improvement in the ability to discriminate between stimuli that were initially perceived as being identical.
In any case, it is clear that learning is not just building a collection of facts: it has more to do with establishing new patterns of thought.
Learning has been defined as behavioral plasticity, although this definition ignores any form of learning that has no effect on behavior.
A better definition of learning would acknowledge that learning is memory and that memories persist over multiple time scales. Short-term memory may last only a few seconds; you glance at your watch to answer a question about the time then a moment later you do not what time is any more. If memory last longer, say from seconds to hours, this is called work memory. If you take a message for someone, you may forget the message as soon as it has been passed on, even if you remember the message for hours before conveying it. If memory last longer still, from hours to months, this is called long-term memory. An example could be your home telephone number, which you are able to recall without effort. A distinction has been made between long-term and long-lasting memory. Long-lasting memory may represent long-term has somehow fossilized; an example could be the telephone number that you remember from your childhood home many year ago.
It is possible that working memory, long-term memory and long lasting memory are simply different phases of long-term memory although there maybe a legitimate distinction among these entities.
In any case, it is clear that learning is not just building a collection of facts: it has more to do with establishing new patterns of thought.
Learning has been defined as behavioral plasticity, although this definition ignores any form of learning that has no effect on behavior.
A better definition of learning would acknowledge that learning is memory and that memories persist over multiple time scales. Short-term memory may last only a few seconds; you glance at your watch to answer a question about the time then a moment later you do not what time is any more. If memory last longer, say from seconds to hours, this is called work memory. If you take a message for someone, you may forget the message as soon as it has been passed on, even if you remember the message for hours before conveying it. If memory last longer still, from hours to months, this is called long-term memory. An example could be your home telephone number, which you are able to recall without effort. A distinction has been made between long-term and long-lasting memory. Long-lasting memory may represent long-term has somehow fossilized; an example could be the telephone number that you remember from your childhood home many year ago.
It is possible that working memory, long-term memory and long lasting memory are simply different phases of long-term memory although there maybe a legitimate distinction among these entities.
"THE EVOLVING BRAIN", The known and Unknown, R. Grant Steen, 2007, pages 128 - 129
