learning

Generic term for the relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice. SEE ALSO: conditioning, forgetting, memory.

- incidental l. l. without a direct attempt. SYN: passive l..

- insight l. the grasp of the solution to a problem without the intervening series of the trial and error steps that are associated with most types of l. ( e.g., a monkey housed behind the bars of a cage who, without proceeding through countless hours of futile attempts with one stick or the other, fits two sticks together to retrieve a banana outside the distance measured by either stick alone).

- latent l. that l. which is not evident to the observer at the time it occurs, but which is inferred from later performance in which l. is more rapid than would be expected without the earlier experience.

- passive l. SYN: incidental l..

- rote l. the l. of arbitrary relationships, usually by repetition of the l. procedure through memorization and without an understanding of the relationships.

- state-dependent l. l. during a specific state of sleep or wakefulness, or during a chemically altered state, where retrieval of learned information ( e.g., as measured by performance of a learned response) cannot be demonstrated unless the subject is restored to the state that originally existed during l..

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learn·ing n the process of acquiring a modification in a behavioral tendency by experience (as exposure to conditioning) in contrast to modifications occurring because of development or a temporary physiological condition (as fatigue) of the organism also the modified behavioral tendency itself

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learn·ing (lurґning) a relatively long-lasting adaptive behavioral change occurring as a result of experience.