What is Learning?
When we learn, we organize, shape, and strengthen our brains.
Humans are learning machines. From the day we are born—and even before—our brains are ready to capture our experiences and encode them into a web of nerve connections.
Our brains are the engines driving the human learning machines. A hundred billion or more nerve cells are crammed into three pounds of complex tissue inside our skull.
Each of these cells is capable of making thousands of connections with others. These cells and connections are the nuts and bolts of the learning machine.
Recent brain research suggests that actively engaging our brains in learning throughout life significantly affects how well we age. Let's explore what we mean by learning.
What Does "Learning" Mean?
To most of us, "learning" means an attempt to create a memory that lasts. Mastering new dance steps, learning foreign languages, or remembering acquaintances' names require our brains to encode and store new information until we need it.
How much do you remember of what you learned in school?
Unless you've used skills from school in your day-to-day life, you may have trouble recalling the details. This is why brain researchers draw differences between learning and memory. They are closely linked—but they are not the same thing.
Difference between Learning and Memory
Not all learning is transformed into lasting memories.
"Learning is how you acquire new information about the world, and memory is how you store that information over time," says Eric R. Kandel, M.D., vice chairman of The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine for his work on the molecular basis of memory. "There is no memory without learning, but there is learning without memory."
For example, you may look up a telephone number and remember it just long enough to make your call. This is sometimes called "working memory." It requires learning—but not for the long haul.
This content is brought by Staying Sharp, a partnership between NRTA: AARP's Educator Community and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.
