| 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) |
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| 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 disorders | Impairment of learning ability due to emotional, environmental or physiological factors. (12 Dec 1998) |
| 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) |
| artificial passive immunity | See: acquired immunity. (05 Mar 2000) |
| passive | Neither spontaneous nor active, not produced by active efforts. Origin: L. Passivus (18 Nov 1997) |
| passive agglutination | Agglutination of particles that have been coated with soluble antigen, by antiserum specific for the adsorbed antigen. Synonym: indirect agglutination. (05 Mar 2000) |
| passive-aggressive behaviour | Apparently compliant behaviour, with intrinsic obstructive or stubborn qualities, to cover deeply felt aggressive feelings that cannot be more directly expressed. (05 Mar 2000) |
| passive-aggressive personality | A personality disorder in which aggressive feelings are manifested in passive ways, especially through mild obstructionism and stubbornness. (05 Mar 2000) |
| passive-aggressive personality disorder | A personality disorder characterised by an indirect resistance to demands for adequate social and occupational performance; anger and opposition to authority and the expectations of others that is expressed covertly by obstructionism, procrastination, stubbornness, dawdling, forgetfulness, and intentional inefficiency. (12 Dec 1998) |
| passive anaphylaxis | A reaction resulting from inoculation of antigen in an animal previously inoculated intravenously with specific antiserum from another animal, a latent period being required between the two inoculations. Synonym: antiserum anaphylaxis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| passive atelectasis | The pulmonary collapse that occurs due to a space-occupying intrathoracic process such as pneumothorax or hydrothorax. (05 Mar 2000) |