Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

Human Learning and Cognition

Fall 2003

Answers - Week 3, Terry, Chapter 1

1. What is learning?

There is no simple definition for something as complex as learning. Obviously any definition or conceptualization of learning is going to be tightly bound by the idea of knowledge, for the intake of new knowledge would indeed seem to the central core of learning, but this kind of process is impossible to observe and very hard to measure with any kind of accuracy as well. Knowledge can only be indirectly observed and this is often done through behaviour. For psychologists, therefore, the clearest indication of learning is a change in behaviour. To extend this simple idea, it is also readily understandable to that for learning to have occurred the change should be permanent or at least be held for a measurable period of time. Following this, it would seem fair to say that learning must really occur in the long-term memory. As teachers of language the important thing for us to remember is that learning is supposed to result in a change in behaviour. This basically means that the learned material is supposed to allow the learner to behave in a new way. They should be able to do things as a result of the learning that they were not able to do before.

2. How are learning and performance related and why do we need to be aware of this?

As was stated above, the idea of learning is centred around the acquisition of knowledge, but this is problematic because it is definitely possible to have knowledge which does in no way affect behaviour or does not do so in any observable way. For us as language teachers this is a particularly important point to keep in mind. What we are trying to do is not bits of knowledge into our students heads. We are trying to help them be able to establish a whole new repertoire of behaviours.

At the same time we also need to be aware that there is such a thing as latent knowledge. This is the knowledge that sits in someone`s head and stews there seemingly dormant until it is somehow needed and made use of. At this point it kicks into life and starts affecting behaviour on a large scale. From this we can derive the idea that learning and the behavioural idea of learning is closely tied with experience. Without relevant experience or opportunities for learning is unnecessary. All learning, all that is being learned must, therefore, be tied to experience in the real world; that is, interaction with and in the real world.

3. What is the relationship between learning and memory?

The relationship between learning and memory is an obvious one. In order to say you have learned something it must have been committed to memory. This means that memory is central for learning and opens up the floodgates of memory research. Things committed to memory are supposed to be somehow measurable and that is where the entire field of testing came from. Tests are there to measure how well a group or people or animals have committed to memory information presented or encountered. Such research has out of necessity turned to the actual construct of memory and how different types of memories work and interact in allowing us to be able to learn information. Following this, the study of learning has become a rather complicated field indeed.

4. What are some of the main approaches to studying learning and which seems to be the most promising?

In the book Terry mentions three main approaches to the question of how to research the phenomenon of learning. Here they are presented in their order of conception: the behavioral approach, the cognitive approach, and the neuropsychological approach. While both of the first two are promising, they also need to be tempered with the last and most recently developed approach. The truth of the mater is that neuropsychological data is necessary to prove any of the concepts presented in either of the first two approaches.