It is common to think of learning ax something that takes place in school, but much of human learning occurs, outside the classroom, anti people continue to learn throughout their lives. Even before they enter school, young children learn to walk, to talk, and to use their hands to make toys. food, and other objects. They use all of their senses to learn about the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells in their environments. They learn how to interact with their parents, friends, and other people important to their world. when they enter school, children learn basic academic, subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. They also continue lo learn a great deal outside the classroom. They learn which behaviors are likely to be rewarded and which are likely to be punished. They learn social skills for interacting with other children. After they finish school, people must learn to adapt to the many major changes that affect their lives, such as getting married, raising children, and finding and keeping a job. Because learning continues throughout our lives and affects almost everything we do, the study of learning is important in many different fields. Teachers need to understand the best ways to educate children. people need to understand how certain experiences change their behaviors. Employers, politicians, and advertisers make use of the principles of learning to influence the behavior of workers, voters, and consumers. Learning is closely related to memory, which is the storage of information in the brain. Psychologists who study memory are interested in how the brain stores knowledge, where this storage takes place, and how the brain later retrieves knowledge when we need it. In contrast, psychologists who study learning are more interested in behavior anti how behavior changes as a result of a person’s experiences. |