Learning

11 peer-reviewed articles

Active Learning

Active learning is the process by which learners actively seek, select, and organize information, shaping their own learning experiences rather than passively receiving information. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors, from making choices about what and how to learn to deciding which sources to

Azzurra Ruggeri 10 min

Causal Learning

Learning about the causal structure of the world is a fundamental problem for human cognition. Over the past 20 years, cognitive scientists have applied advances in our understanding of causation in philosophy and computer science, particularly within the Causal Bayes Net formalism, to understand hu

Alison Gopnik 6 min

Iterated Learning

Iterated learning describes a process in which individuals acquire a system of knowledge or behavior by observing other individuals who acquired it in the same way. Many systems of human knowledge and behavior are transmitted via iterated learning, including language, music, and social stereotypes.

Kenny Smith 7 min

Language Socialization

Language socialization concerns the role language plays in a person becoming a member of a social group and how a learner is guided, overtly or covertly, to use language(s) as a cultural competency. Children’s early utterances and gestures are not primarily produced for referential purposes but rath

Lila San Roque 9 min

Motor Learning

Humans possess a remarkable ability to acquire, adapt, and retain movements—a capacity known as motor learning (literally “learning to move,” from the Latin movere, “to move”). Through motor learning, we continuously compare expected movement outcomes with actual movement outcomes, using errors, rew

Jonathan Tsay 13 min

Multi-Representational Learning

Multi-representational learning refers to the way that people learn when they interpret more than one representation that others, often experts, have created or when they construct multiple representations for themselves. Examples include reading books replete with text, photographs, diagrams, or pa

Shaaron E Ainsworth 9 min

Perceptual Learning

Perceptual learning is a change in perception due to practice or repeated exposure to a given category of stimuli. It is commonly measured via performance improvements in perceptual tasks. The study of perceptual learning can be separated into research on basic perceptual tasks, real-world perceptua

Madeleine Ransom, Robert L. Goldstone 6 min

Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) refers to a process in which an agent (biological or artificial) learns how to behave in its environment by using a simple type of information: reinforcers, which index how good or bad something is. The term RL is used by multiple scientific communities to cover different

Anne GE Collins 22 min

Social Learning

Social learning broadly refers to learning that occurs through the learner’s social experiences, such as observing or interacting with others. In contrast, asocial or individual learning refers to learning that takes place in the absence of social input, such as through the exploration of one’s phys

Hyowon Gweon 6 min

Statistical Learning

Statistical learning refers to the ability to track patterns in the environment. These patterns occur in a wide array of domains (e.g., speech, scenes, melodies). Humans track statistics over stimuli ranging from simple units (e.g., phonemes, tones, geometric shapes) to abstract categories (e.g., pa

Jenny Saffran 6 min

Word Learning

One important part of learning a language involves mastering the forms of words and linking these to their meanings. Because words are not only part of language but also delimiters of specific concepts and means for social action, word learning has been a central topic in cognitive science. Although

Michael C. Frank 7 min