What Have We Learned About Learning? Reflections from Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

Learning is thought to be something at which human beings excel. They learn many things over the course of time from infancy to adulthood, such as how to communicate with others using language, how to manipulate objects, and how to solve problems effectively. But what is the science behind learning? How do people’s brains change as they learn, and does this have anything to do with the strategies they use to learn? In this essay, we briefly outline the changes in how researchers approach the issue of learning across development, with a focus on language learning, and discuss how current neuroscientific research complements what is known behaviorally about learning. We illustrate how various developmental and neural processing inputs interact with prior experience to facilitate learning. Further, the contributions of active learning over the lifespan, and the roles of novelty and motivation in enhancing learning, are considered. Approaching learning as a complex, multifaceted process will help researchers move toward more-integrated behavioral and neurobiological models of learning.