Learning means acquiring knowledge or developing the ability to perform new behaviors. It is common to think of learning as something that takes place in school, but much of human learning occurs outside the classroom, and people continue to learn throughout their lives.

   Even before they enter school, young children learn to walk, to talk, and to use their hands to manipulate toys, food, and other objects. They use all of their senses to learn about the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells in their environments. They learn how to interact with their parents, siblings, friends, and other people important to their world. When they enter school, children learn basic academic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. They also continue to learn a great deal outside the classroom. They learn which behaviors are likely to be rewarded and which are likely to be punished. They learn social skills for interacting with other children. After they finish school, people must learn to adapt to the many major changes that affect their lives, such as getting married, raising children, and finding and keeping a job. Because learning continues throughout our lives and affects almost everything we do, the study of learning is important in many different fields. Teachers need to understand the best ways to educate children. Psychologists, social workers, criminologists, and other human-service workers need to understand how certain experiences change people’s behaviors. Employers, politicians, and advertisers make use of the principles of learning to influence the behavior of workers, voters, and consumers.

   Learning is closely related to memory, which is the storage of information in the brain. Psychologists who study memory are interested in how the brain stores knowledge, where this storage takes place, and how the brain later retrieves knowledge when we need it. In contrast, psychologists who study learning are more interested in behavior and how behavior changes as a result of a person’s experiences.

   There are many forms of learning, ranging from simple to complex. Simple forms of learning involve a single stimulus. A stimulus is anything perceptible to the senses, such as a sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. In a form of learning known as classical conditioning, people learn to associate two stimuli that occur in sequence, such as lightning followed by thunder. In operant conditioning, people learn by forming an association between a behavior and its consequences (reward or punishment). People and animals can also learn by observation - that is, by watching others perform behaviors. More complex forms of learning include learning languages, concepts, and motor skills.

According to the passage, the study of learning is important in many fields due to ______.

Câu hỏi liên quan

• The word “surreptitiously” is closest in meaning to ...........

• What does the passage mainly discuss?

• The word "succeeding" is closest to ______.

ZUNIA12

• What do the Hindu people think about marriage?

• Which of the following statements is NOT true?

• The word "grip" in the passage means to ..........

• The passage implies that_______.

• The word “applicable” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ..........

• What is the main topic of the passage?

• According to the passage, which of the following is true?

• We sometimes think of writing as more real than speech because ..................

• People nod their head to say no in ...............

• The word “hurdles” can be best replaced by ___________.

• What does the word magni stand for?

• The word “odd” refers to which of the following?

• According to the passage, cell phones are especially popular with young people because ...............

• All of the following are TRUE about long – term memory EXCEPT that ..........

• What does the phrase “you have got it out of your system” in passage mean?

• Sixty years ago, most women ..............

• In paragraph 2, non-native species are mentioned as ______.