What does it mean to learn?

Made up of three structural features, Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory, the modal model of memory is a basic guide to the building blocks of the stages of memory. The diagram for this model starts with the input of memory, which is received in the Sensory memory. This is a type of memory that we experience when we encounter something new. It is a fleeting memory that lasts for only a few seconds at most and stores information about what we have seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt. As we focus on one stimulus, we begin to “zone in” and gather more specific information moves into short-term memory. This information lasts up to 30 seconds or so through a control process like rehearsal before it fades away unless it is encoded into long-term memory through another control process like association. Long-term memory is then used for recall, where the memory transfers back to short-term memory in order to use or output the memory.

Many people associate learning with memorizing. If we think of learning as a routine of moving short-term memory into long-term memory and recalling the information to use or output- it is a pretty concrete system. It is mechanical. And, perhaps that is it- to learn is to know. Knowing is building the Lego set just as it is illustrated on the box. 

But, for me, I always fall back to, “Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, to know an event, is not simply to look at it and make a mental copy or image of it. To know an object is to act on it. To know is to modify, to transform the object, and to understand the process of the transformation, and as a consequence to understand the way the object is constructed (Piaget, 1964).”

So, in this example, knowing is not building the Lego set as you see it on the box. Knowing is understanding Lego well enough to adapt and change what is existing into something new, maybe even better by some standards. So, is learning simply recall or is that only the first step in the process of learning? I think so.

References

Goldstein, E. B. (2004). Cognitive Psychology: connecting mind, research and everyday experience. http://library.fip.uny.ac.id/opac/index.php?p=show_detail&id=4640&keywords=

Piaget, J. (1964). Part I: Cognitive development in children: Piaget development and learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2(3), 176–186. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660020306