In education, as in psychology, clarity matters. Yet in everyday conversations about teaching and learning, terms like learning theory and pedagogy are often used interchangeably. Phrases such as “We ...

Biology uses generative systems. Genomes consist of an alphabet of four nucleotides, which, together with certain rules for how to produce proteins and organize cells, generates an unlimited variety ...

Humans are storytelling beings. As far as we know, no other species has the capacity for language and ability to use it in endlessly creative ways. From our earliest days, we name and describe things.

One of the main impacts of learning theory is on engineering. Systems that learn from examples to perform a specific task have many applications 6. For instance, a system may be needed to recognize ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Noam Chomsky’s political views attract so ...

If you've ever wondered why some people succeed at learning new skills and knowledge while others fail to grasp basic concepts, you may want to find out more about learning theory. Theories of ...

Xijia Zhang is affiliated with the University of Alberta. Kimberly Noels works for the University of Alberta. She receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Learning new languages is a natural instinct for children, and yet it becomes more difficult as we age. We might be at a disadvantage as adults, but with a few learning methods, you can still give ...