Significant advances in conditioning and skill learning are achieved by the time adolescence is reached, with substantial development taking place during this period and young adulthood, setting the stage of adult learning (Pressley & Schneider, 1999). Development of Episodic and Semantic Memory During the early 1970s, Tulving proposed that explicit memory in humans can be differentiated into that episodic memory and semantic memory, which Tulving believed were completely different systems (Baddeley, Kopelman & Wilson, 2002)
Brain Substrates The study of brain substrates of memory and the cognitive organization of memory has been facilitated in recent years by innovations in methods that can be used to measure brain activity to identify how humans acquire information and retain it (Medin, 2001). Because the scope and amount of learning that take place as measured by these innovations, they have contributed much to understanding the genetic basis of learning and memory (Eichenbaum, 1997) which is discussed further below
Down's Syndrome Down's syndrome is among a wide range of chromosomal abnormalities that affect about 6 out of every 1,000 births that can cause developmental problems across the lifespan (Heyman & Henrikson, 2001). Alzheimer's Disease Currently, Alzheimer's disease represents the most common cause of dementia and affects almost 4 million people in the United States alone (Handy, Turnbull, Edwards & Lancaster, 1998)
Behavioral Process Individual responses to a given set of events or circumstances can be regarded as being either incorrect or correct. The determination concerning whether a particular response was incorrect is founded on a decision rules that were developed beforehand by the individual who created the events or circumstances (Hashway, 1998)
Clinical Perspective From a clinical perspective, determining how people learn and remember new information represents a timely and valuable enterprise, particularly with a rapidly aging population that is experiencing unprecedented prevalence levels of debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. Down's Syndrome Down's syndrome is among a wide range of chromosomal abnormalities that affect about 6 out of every 1,000 births that can cause developmental problems across the lifespan (Heyman & Henrikson, 2001)
In fact, a wide range of differences in culture, technology and socioeconomic organization also play a role in gender-related behaviors that may or may not be directly associated with gender-related differences in the brain (Notman & Nadelson, 1999). The Brain from Neonatal to Old Age The brains of neonates are differentiated from brains of older humans by being smoother surface tissues that wrinkle with the development of synapse formation during the acquisition and retention of information (Kolb, 1995)
Absent organic conditions that can adversely affect the learning and memory functions, humans should be capable of acquiring new information and retaining it as long as they live. Brain Substrates The study of brain substrates of memory and the cognitive organization of memory has been facilitated in recent years by innovations in methods that can be used to measure brain activity to identify how humans acquire information and retain it (Medin, 2001)
Newly formed networks in the brain help to create the framework in which new memories are stored and accessed, a process that also accelerates as people grow and mature (Pressley & Schneider, 1999). Gender Difference in Brain and Behavior Despite a growing body of knowledge, researchers remain divided concerning how gender affects brain functioning and human behavior (Notman & Nadelson, 1999)
Therefore, behavioral processes are an integral part of the lifelong learning process, and these issues are discussed further below. The Developing Memory: Birth to Old Age A great deal of research was conducted during the latter half of the 20th century to determine how humans begin the learning process and continue through their lifespans (Pressley & Schneider, 1999)
7). Indeed, some authorities even maintain that memory is not only essential to the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information, but is a fundamental requirement of human cognition in all its forms (Richardson, Engle, Hasher, Logie, Stoltzfus & Zacks, 1999)
94). These are important consideration for educators because they dispel any notions of one ethnicity having a superior capability to learn and remember (Welch et al