Learning Ability: Function, Tasks, Role & Diseases

Contrary to many beliefs, people are capable of learning at any point in their lives. Even at an advanced age, something new can be started – provided the mind remains active, ensuring the ability to learn.

What is the ability to learn?

Contrary to many beliefs, people are capable of learning at any point in their lives. Even at an advanced age, something new can be started. Learning activates certain processes in our brain: if it is regularly fed with new information, it expands existing connections and in turn makes new ones. Due to its very large storage capacity, our head is able to absorb a large amount of new knowledge. The general ability to learn depends not only on intelligence, but also on other individual characteristics of a person: For example, does he possess the perseverance, interest and diligence? Is he curious and ambitious? Is he willing to learn and achieve at all? Also, does he have the ability to work sustainably and effectively?

Function and task

A person’s individual ability to assimilate knowledge undergoes restructuring as they age. The ability to absorb and store information in short-term memory is strongest in childhood and adolescence and gradually decreases over a lifetime. However, children tend to learn less intensively and effectively than adults. Thus, mature individuals have been shown to be better able to use appropriate learning methods and in many cases show greater motivation than younger individuals. However, the ability to learn in children and adolescents means, in addition to simply absorbing knowledge, growing into society as they mature. This so-called socialization process means, above all, that an adolescent is increasingly able to conform to the expectations and norms of family, school and work and to integrate successfully into society. The difficulty in this process is finding the right balance between the needs of the environment and one’s own desires and expectations. If people achieve a balance between the two poles in the course of their lives, they have learned to develop their own identity and at the same time to operate successfully within society. The foundation for a good learning ability is laid in early childhood. If parents provide their children with a wide range of new stimuli during this time, curiosity increases. This in turn stimulates the ambition to find out more and learn new things. However, before a child’s interest in new things is aroused, he or she should be very familiar with his or her own environment. After all, if a child is presented with stimulating news in a familiar setting, he or she can acquire new behavior and knowledge step by step instead of being overwhelmed and frightened by too much newness.

Illnesses and complaints

However, whether a person is also willing to accomplish something in the course of his life with the help of his learning ability additionally depends on his motivation. A motivation to perform results, among other things, from the two factors “hope of success” and “fear of failure.” If the prospect of success predominates, the task set appears subjectively rather easy to a person; if, on the other hand, there is a strong fear of failure, the work is perceived as predominantly difficult. The relationship between teachers and students also affects the learning ability of adolescents. Because children make their image of themselves very dependent on external influences, they are often very receptive to teacher evaluations. These evaluations have been shown to have a very strong impact on motivation and ability to learn. If a child experiences many failures and poor evaluations at school, the self-image changes accordingly in the negative direction. This hopelessness consequently lowers his ability and joy to take up new things. To maintain learning ability and mental freshness at any age, a number of measures can help. People who regularly read a lot, play a musical instrument and have an active social life ensure that their brain always remains active. A balanced diet rich in vitamins also promotes the ability to absorb new knowledge. The brain needs a total of one-fifth of the daily energy requirement.Carbohydrates in wholemeal bread, oatmeal, potatoes and brown rice help us to concentrate for longer periods of time. It has been proven, for example, that the plant substances in broccoli also protect the nerve cells in the brain. If you also drink two to three liters of water, tea or unsweetened spritzer, you supply your head and body with sufficient oxygen and can thus avoid concentration lows. Another protective function is fulfilled by the messenger substance BDNF. Because this substance is released in greater quantities during sporting activity, sporty people in particular have a particularly high ability to learn and grasp things well into old age. It has also been proven that sport consolidates what has been learned and that the information remains in the memory for longer. A large number of brain jogging programs offer people over the age of 30 individual support in their ability to learn. For while one person may particularly enjoy learning a new language, another may enjoy a new computer brain game: When it comes to brain training, it’s important above all that the mental task is fun or also pursues a long-term goal. For example, learning a language for the next vacation not only increases motivation, but also learning performance.