the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.
Questions tagged [learning]
32 questions
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2 answers
Did al-Ghazali lead to decline of science in Islam as Neil Tyson claims?
The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said that during the Islamic Golden Age, especially in Baghdad, science and discovery flourished for a few centuries. Then an Islamic scholar named al-Ghazali became prominent, whose ideas took root. Among…
Zebrafish
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28
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Can toddlers learn sign language?
The other day came across a commercial of a 'course for sign language' for infants and toddlers.
I was a bit sceptical from the start and my suspicions only rose, then I discovered that there is what seems to me to be a multinational MLM scheme…
Mchl
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24
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Does learning immediately before going to sleep increase the effect?
I have read now several times as a "secret tip" that learning directly before going to sleep significantly increases the effectiveness of learning, probably the long-term memory when, for example, learning the vocabulary of a new language.
The Costa…
Hauser
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20
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Is Polish the hardest language to learn?
I've recently been to Poland and I've heard the claim that Polish is the hardest language to learn. I've found this claim repeated again today, for example on this blog post:
The hardest language to learn is: Polish – Seven cases, Seven genders and…
Sklivvz
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18
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Is passive listening useless when learning a language?
In an article on the blog Fluent in Three Months is a claim that listening to hours of a foreign language without really concentrating on it is "barely better than nothing".
The shocking truth is that passive listening is never going to get you to…
Samuelson
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17
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1 answer
Do 'wiggle chairs' help children to stay focused or learn better?
Wiggle chairs are seats designed to encourage a child to wiggle on them. They sometimes require balancing on something or regular fidgeting to keep upright. Supposedly this helps a child to focus by giving them an outlet for fidgeting that doesn't…
dsollen
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1 answer
Is it harder for adults to learn new skills?
We all have learned our mother's tongue with much more ease than we learn any additional language, and I am always amazed at how effortlessly little kids seem to pick up sports and skills.
Has there ever been a scientific study to verify that grown…
Lagerbaer
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16
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Are 10,000 hours of practice necessary to gain true expertise in a subject?
It's an often repeated internet certainty that, to be truly good at something, you need to practice for 10,000 hours. As far as I have been able to ascertain, this theory (or hypothesis?) gained popularity with Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers.
Is…
drxzcl
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14
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Are there auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners?
It's a common advice to find out whether a child is a auditory, visual or a kinesthetic learner.
For some, auditory input is most valuable; others rely upon a visual style. Still others learn through kinesthetic means, or a combination of the…
Christian
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13
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Does abuse of 'study drugs' increase school performance or learning?
Study drugs, such as Adderall, are regularly abused in colleges due to the belief that they help with studying and/or learning. However this article suggests that the affect is primarily a placebo affect and adderall may not actually prove…
dsollen
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13
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1 answer
At what age do children develop a sense of gender identity?
To make things clear, I want to state that I have no doubt about whether people are transgender and what that means. I simply am asking about what age children are able to comprehend their personal situation.
The family of an adult who recently came…
Cassandra Gelvin
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13
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1 answer
Does language acquisition become more difficult after a "critical period" linked to age?
The critical period hypothesis (from Wikipedia):
The critical period hypothesis is the subject of a long-standing
debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to
which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to…
Five Points
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13
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3 answers
Is Khan Academy effective at teaching?
For a research project I've decided to look at the merits of teaching through video compared to teaching through the medium of a lecture. This lead me to Khan Academy, a website launched in 2006 with the purpose of teaching the masses for free using…
doreye01
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12
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1 answer
Can jet lag give you permanent memory and learning problems?
A recent article on Cracked.com, 5 Things You Won't Believe Are Making You Dumber, claims "jet lag gives you permanent memory and learning problems" and cited several studies. But when you look at the cited study, it shows permanent mental deficits…
InquilineKea
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Is studying while sick bad for your brain?
The New Straits Times reported:
Working unduly hard or studying while sick may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damaging it.
P-Healthcare blog reports one of the "Top ten brain-damaging habits":
Do you know that working…
bobobobo
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