Ability to learn

Contrary to many beliefs, people are capable of learning at any point in their life. Something new can be started even in old age - provided the mind remains active and thus ensures that Ability to learn.

What is the learning ability?

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 does not only depend on intelligence, but also on other individual character traits of a person: for example, does he have the perseverance, interest and hard work? Is he curious and ambitious? Is he even ready to learn and achieve something? Does he also have the ability to work sustainably and effectively?

Function & task

The individual ability of a person to absorb knowledge undergoes a restructuring with increasing age. The ability to take up information in the short-term memory and store it there is strongest in childhood and adolescence and gradually decreases over the course of a lifetime.

However, children usually learn less intensively and effectively than adults. This means that more mature people can demonstrably use suitable learning methods better and, in many cases, they are more motivated than younger people.

The ability to learn in children and adolescents means, in addition to the mere absorption of knowledge, also to grow into society with increasing maturity. This so-called socialization process means above all that an adolescent is increasingly able to meet the expectations and norms of family, school and work and to integrate successfully into society.

The difficulty in this process is to find the right balance between the needs of the environment and your own wishes and expectations. If people achieve a balanced relationship between both poles in the course of their lives, they have learned to develop their own identity and at the same time to act successfully within society.

The foundation for a good ability to learn is laid in early childhood. If the parents provide their children with a wide range of new ideas during this time, curiosity increases. This in turn stimulates the ambition to find out more things and to learn them.

But before a child is interested in new things, they should be very familiar with their own surroundings. Because: If a child is presented with stimulating news in a familiar setting, it can acquire new behavior and knowledge step by step instead of being overwhelmed and scared by too many new things.

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Illnesses & ailments

Whether a person is ready to achieve something with the help of their learning ability in the course of their life also depends on their motivation. A performance motivation results among other things from the two factors "hope for success" and "fear of failure". If the prospect of success predominates, the task at hand appears to be 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 adolescents' ability to learn. Because children make their image of themselves very dependent on external influences, they are often very sensitive to evaluations from teachers. These assessments have been shown to have a very strong impact on motivation and ability to learn. If a child experiences a lot of failures and bad assessments at school, the self-image changes accordingly in the negative direction. This hopelessness consequently lowers his ability and joy to absorb new things.

A number of measures can help to maintain the ability to learn and mental freshness at any age. People who regularly read a lot, play a musical instrument, and lead an active social life ensure that their brains always stay active. A balanced diet with many vitamins also promotes the ability to absorb new knowledge.

The brain needs a fifth of the daily energy requirement. Carbohydrates in wholemeal bread, oatmeal, potatoes or wholegrain rice help to concentrate on longer periods of time. It has been shown, for example, that the plant substances in broccoli also protect the nerve cells in the brain.

Anyone who also consumes two to three liters of water, tea or unsweetened spritzer supplies their head and body with enough oxygen and can thus avoid lows of concentration.

The messenger substance BDNF fulfills a further protective function. Because this substance is increasingly released during sporting activity, athletic people in particular have a particularly high learning ability and comprehension well into old age. Furthermore, it is considered to be proven that sport consolidates what has been learned and the information remains in the memory longer.

A large number of brain jogging programs offer people over the age of 30 individual support in their learning ability. Because while learning a new language is particularly fun for one, the other is interested in a new computer brain game: The most important thing about brain training is that the brain teaser is fun or that it has a long-term goal. For example, if we learn a language for the next vacation, this not only increases motivation, but also the learning performance.