What is Learning?
'''Learning''' is getting new things into your [[brain]]. There are a number of different types of learning: <ref>Hilgard E.H. & Bower G.D. 1981. ''Theories of learning''. 5th ed, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.</ref> #[[Classical conditioning]]: where two stimuli come together, the organism learns they are related. #[[Operant conditioning]]: an organism changes its behaviour when behaviour has [[wikt:consequence|consequences]]. #[[Play (activity)|Play]]: an [[heritable|inherited]] mechanism whereby [[mammal]]s speed up learning in the young. #[[Gestalt]] learning: learning by [[insight]] #[[wikt:Imitation|Imitation]], emulation or observational learning: mimicking the behaviour of others #[[Implicit learning]] or [[Unconscious mind|unconscious learning]]: learning which is done without conscious awareness of the learning process. #[[Imprinting]]: a very rapid type of early learning. Learning may occur as a result of [[habituation]] or [[classical conditioning]], seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as [[play (activity)|play]], seen only in relatively intelligent animals.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1996/1/junglegyms.cfm |title=Jungle gyms: the evolution of animal play |access-date=2012-03-26 |archive-date=2007-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011051238/http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1996/1/junglegyms.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/behavior.php What behavior can we expect of octopuses?]</ref> Learning may occur [[conscious]]ly or without conscious awareness. There is evidence for human behavioral learning prenatally, in which [[habituation]] has been observed as early as 32 weeks into [[gestation]], indicating that the [[central nervous system]] is sufficiently developed and primed for learning and memory to occur very early in [[developmental psychology|development]].<ref>Sandman, Wadhwa, Hetrick, Porto & Peeke. (1997). Human fetal heart rate dishabituation be