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.

It can be inferred from the passage that social workers, employers, and politicians concern themselves with the study of learning because they need to ______.

Câu hỏi liên quan

• The Daylight Saving Time Energy Act of 1973 was responsible for ..

• The word “gloomy” in the passage is closest in meaning to ...............

• What happened to make Bethan decide to quit Facebook for a while?

ZUNIA12

• After which year did the town really begin developing?

• The word “haphazard” is closest in meaning to which of the following?

• The phrase “casts off” is closest in meaning to ..........

• The main idea of this passage is that .................

• In order to show that learning to write requires effort, the author gives the example of ............

• According to the passage, which of the following factors might spoil the tourists’ fun at Mediterranean resorts and beaches?

• Which of the following is NOT mentioned about John Harvard?

• Who were the first people to have seen these apelike creatures before the five campers?

• What is NOT TRUE about the Beatles?

• According to the passage, Porter’s Father was ___________.

• Learning to write is .................

• The word "hyperactive" is closest in meaning to _____.

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

• Why does the author mention Lady Gaga?

• According to the passage, Charlotte Taylor believes that women in 1970s .............

• It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that__________.

• This reading would most probably be assigned in which of the following courses?