LEARNING

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family - Kofi Annan.

The brain at every point in time is supplied with a lot of information through various channels including:

1. Thoughts coming from the association areas of the brain's neocortex.

2. Special sense organs:

- The eye (vision)

- The ear (hearing)

- The nose (smelling)

- The skin (feeling)

- The tongue (tasting)

Learning

Learning is the is acquisition of the information that makes the alteration of behavior possible. It is one of the highest and most complex functions of the nervous system of humans. The process of learning is always preceded by stimulation, which, most of the time, comes from the external body environment through the five special senses mentioned above.

Psychologically, there are three different levels of learning that occur at the three different levels of the human mind including:

Subconscious learning

This level of learning is involuntary and takes place unknowingly. This, sometimes, depends on what has been fed to the mind from the external environment such as languagTe. This level of learning happens without the effort of the learner.

Concious Learning

This is the level of learning that occur as a result of the effort of the learner at acquiring the knowledge of a particular subject for immediate or future use. 

Superconcious Learning

This level of learning is achieved through the extraordinary effort of the learher at learning a particular subject by immersing his whole thought in the subject (transcendental meditation), which, depends on what has already been fed to the concious mind from the external environment through the five special senses and thoughts. This, most of the time, involves the repetition of a phrase as in yoga or some religious spiritual exercises such as catholics saying the rosary.

Physiologically, learning of any kind has a specific area in the brain where it takes place such as language center for learning laguages, speech center for speech, motor area for movement, sensory area for feeling sensations and so on.



There two forms of learning:

- Associative and

- Non associative learning

Associative learning is  learning about a single stimulus.

Non associative learning is learning about the connection of one stimulus to another - the Pavlov dog.

Learning is a pivotal process in the life of every human person. It refines behavior and adds value.

Festus C. Anaba, B Med. Sci. Physiology