Accretion, tuning and restructuring: Three modes of learning

Abstract : Learning is not a simple unitary process. In this paper we identify three qualitatively different phases of the learning process. In one phase, the learner acquires facts and information, accumulating more structures onto the already existing knowledge structures. This phase of learning is adequate only when the material being learned is part of a previously understood topic: the appropriate memory schemata already exist. In a second phase, the learner must devise new memory structures to interpret the material that is to be acquired. This is the most difficult and the most significant form of learning, for it marks the acquisition of truly new conceptualizations about a topic matter. The third phase of learning involves a continual process of modification: both constraining and generalizing the knowledge within the schemata of memory. This stage of learning does not increase the formal content of one's knowledge, but it makes the use of the knowledge more efficient. Thus, although a beginner and an expert might both perform a task with perfect accuracy, there is a marked qualitative difference between the performance of the two. We propose three different mechanisms that seem to be responsible for the different phases of the learning of complex topic matters: accretion, restructuring, and tuning.