| incidental learning | Learning without a direct attempt. Synonym: passive learning. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| insight learning | The grasp of the solution to a problem without the intervening series of the trial and error steps that are associated with most types of learning (e.g., a monkey housed behind the bars of a cage who, without proceeding through countless hours of futile attempts with one stick or the other, fits two sticks together to retrieve a banana outside the distance measured by either stick alone). (05 Mar 2000) |
| latent learning | That learning which is not evident to the observer at the time it occurs, but which is inferred from later performance in which learning is more rapid than would be expected without the earlier experience. (05 Mar 2000) |
| learning | 1. The acquisition of knowledge or skill; as, the learning of languages; the learning of telegraphy. 2. The knowledge or skill received by instruction or study; acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature; erudition; literature; science; as, he is a man of great learning. Book learning. See Book. Synonym: Literature, erudition, lore, scholarship, science, letters. See Literature. Origin: AS. Leornung. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| learning disability | A disorder in one or more of the basic cognitive and psychological processes involved in understanding or using written or spoken language; may be manifested in age-related impairment in the ability to read, write, spell, speak, or perform mathematical calculations. (05 Mar 2000) |
| learning set | A readiness or predisposition to learn developed from previous learning experiences, as when an organism learns to solve each successive problem (of equal or increasing difficulty) in fewer trials. (05 Mar 2000) |
| learning theory | Any of several prominent theories designed to explain learning, especially those promulgated by Pavlov, Thorndike, Guthrie, Hull, Kohler, Spence, Miller, Skinner, and their modern followers. See: conditioning. (05 Mar 2000) |
| affective personality disorder | A disturbance of feelings or mood expressed as a milder form of depression and related emotional features that colour the whole psychic life and for which psychosocial stressors are believed to play the major role. (05 Mar 2000) |
| alcohol amnestic disorder | <psychiatry> A mental disorder with brain damage characterised by amnesia, compensatory confabulation, disturbance of attention, and peripheral neuritis. It is usually associated with alcoholism and dietary deficiencies. (12 Dec 1998) |
| antisocial personality disorder | <psychiatry> An individual who engages in deviant behaviour with lack of remorse. (13 Jan 1998) |
| asthenic personality disorder | A personality type characterised by low energy level, easy fatigability, incapacity for enjoyment, lack of enthusiasm, and oversensitivity to physical and emotional stress. When appearing in marked form it becomes a psychological disorder (asthenic personality disorder), also called dependent personality. Synonym: asthenic personality disorder, dependent personality disorder. (05 Mar 2000) |
| attention deficit disorder | An inability to control behaviour due to difficulty in processing neural stimuli. (12 Dec 1998) |
| attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity | A behaviour disorder originating in childhood in which the essential features are signs of developmentally inappropriate inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Although most individuals have symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity, one or the other pattern may be predominant. The disorder is more frequent in males than females. Onset is in childhood. Symptoms often attenuate during late adolescence although a minority experience the full complement of symptoms into mid-adulthood. (12 Dec 1998) |
| attention deficit hyperactivity disorder | <psychiatry> A condition seen in children where there is increased motor activity in association with poor attention span. Often treated with amphetamine medications. (27 Sep 1997) |
| autistic disorder | autism, infantile autism |