Foundations for a New Science of Learning

By Andrew N. Meltzoff, Patricia K. Kuhl, Javier R. Movellan, Terrence J. Sejnowski. 2009

724 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Dissecting Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties in learning to read, despite reasonable effort and instruction, form the basis of dyslexia. Gabrieli (p. 280; see the cover) now reviews the latest research into the causes of dyslexia. Neuroimaging studies may give early notice of impending dyslexia, and it is hoped that early interventions may lessen the impact of dyslexia. Learning occurs in many settings. Humans uniquely use the formalized settings of schools and curriculum. Infants and children also do plenty of learning outside these settings, often intermingling social interactions. Meltzoff et al. (p. 284) survey the variety of learning contexts that people experience and discuss how recent advances in neuroscience and robotics are driving a new synthesis of learning. Human learning is distinguished by the range and complexity of skills that can be learned and the degree of abstraction that can be achieved compared with those of other species. Homo sapiens is also the only species that has developed formal ways to enhance learning: teachers, schools, and curricula. Human infants have an intense interest in people and their behavior and possess powerful implicit learning mechanisms that are affected by social interaction. Neuroscientists are beginning to understand the brain mechanisms underlying learning and how shared brain systems for perception and action support social learning. Machine learning algorithms are being developed that allow robots and computers to learn autonomously. New insights from many different fields are converging to create a new science of learning that may transform educational practices.

Subfields: Cultural Studies, Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Interpersonal Synchrony: A Survey of Evaluation Methods across Disciplines (2012, neutral): “synchrony, language acquisition, and joint attention [136].”
The Cerebellum, Sensitive Periods, and Autism (2014, neutral): “Language acquisition and the formation of social capacities are among the hardest problems that the human brain must solve, yet most babies master them effortlessly (Meltzoff et al., 2009).”
Music training for the development of auditory skills (2010, background): “It should be noted that we learn best about things that we care about; therefore, the engagement of the neural circuitry that underlies emotion during music-making is likely to be helpful in this regar”
The language of play: developing preschool vocabulary through play following shared book-reading (2018, background): “The Head Start program serves only low-4 income families, and Tennessee’s program these initial arrangements were made in a small minority of cases, based on consideration of teachers’ input on behavioral incompatibility, an aim to have mixed gender groups, and attendance These adjustments were…”
Brain Mechanisms in Early Language Acquisition (2010, background): “Moreover, this gating hypothesis may explain why social factors play a far more significant role than previously realized in human learning across domains throughout our lifetimes (Meltzoff et al., 2009).”
From simple innate biases to complex visual concepts (2012, background): “…16), and using them to make inferences and predictions (1 – 3, 17 A large body of developmental studies has suggested that the human cognitive system is equipped through evolution with basic innate structures that facilitate the acquisition of meaningful concepts and categories (9, 15, 18 – 21).”