Learning - social, cognitive, and developmental psychologies offer several theories suggesting regarding what, when, why, and how people acquire knowledge.

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Learning

Saundra Moskoff

Psych 550

October 29, 2012

Ming Zheng, Ph.D.


Learning

The acquirement of information resulting in openly discernable and reasonably stable behavioral changes defines how people acquire knowledge (Terry, 2009). People learn during every stage of life. Toddlers who burn their hands after unintentionally touching a hot stove learn they should not touch a hot stove. Because she wanted to look cute in a short skirt, despite the cold temperature, teenage girls learn they need to don more clothing in cold weather, and adults learn how their behavior, such as using profanity, offends others.

Concept of learning

The concept of learning remains a longstanding debate in psychology. Disciplines, such as the social, cognitive, and developmental psychologies offer several theories suggesting regarding what, when, why, and how people acquire knowledge.

What

        According to University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (2005), learning involves four kinds of information attainment, transmission, acquisition, accretion, and emergence. Transmission refers to the conveying of information from one to another through display, direction, or instruction, such as traditional education. Acquisition involves research conducted by the learner, such as experiments and general curiosity. Accretion involves the steady achievement of knowledge, such as habits, language, culture, and civil behavior. Emergence refers to the formation of ideas rooted in amalgamation of existing information (University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, 2005).

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When

        Biologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development answers when a person learns by centering on the maturational aspects that influence understanding, and suggests learning occurs in four stages during childhood. The pace of development relies on the achievement of cerebral and emotive milestones, each stage developing further upon the completion of preceding stages (Piaget, 1952).

Why

        Social Cognition suggests an interesting opinion into the reasons people learn. According to Fiske (2010), learning happens mainly because of cultural affects. The theory speculates that children learn because their culture trains them how to think and what to think, ...

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