how we LEARN, together

Learning it seems, can mean almost anything. Behaviorists define learning as the strengthening of association between stimuli and behavioral response. Cognitivists on the other hand, define learning as internal processing of information, and constructivists define learning based on an individual’s creative autonomy and lived experience.

What binds these various theories of learning are the basic biological processes involved in each one, including how we pay attention, how information is processed, how we understand other people, how we make decisions, and how we adjust through feedback.

 
 
Photo by Paul Schafer on Unsplash

1. Paying ATTENTION & USING FILTERS

In a world full of distractions, how do we pay attention to what matters most?

Attention is a bi-directional process: just as we have stimuli coming into awareness through our senses, we use top-down filters to determine where we pay attention and which stimuli we will detect.

Some of the filters we use include:

  • Filters that pick up social stimuli such as human faces

  • Filters that prioritize information about ourselves (self-referential stimuli)

  • Filters for categories and words that we are most familiar with, including chronically accessible categories, schemas, and stereotypes


2. PROCESSING PATHWAYS

We use two distinct attentional systems:

  1. System 1: processes information automatically

  2. System 2: requires more conscious and effortful thought


3. UNDERSTANDING OTHERS

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4. DECISIONS TO HELP

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5. FEEDBACK & REINFORCEMENT

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