Reconceptualizing Learning

Abstract

“Learning” is a key psychological notion surrounded by some conceptual confusion. It is conceptualized in various different ways, it is notoriously difficult to define, and the notion and ways in which it is used sit uneasily with current conceptualizations of cognition. This article analyzes the concept of learning and the domain that it helps carve up to highlight its problems and then argues that learning is an inherently poor category that is best abandoned. Its use creates problems, separates research areas, and suggests poor questions. Its domain is better divided up with the notion of representation creation and alteration, which resolves various problems, simplifies the field, and better connects traditional work in learning theory with current work on cognition.