Learning is a relatively lasting change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. The change need not be conscious. A rat pressing a lever for food, a child avoiding a hot stove after one burn, and a student mastering quadratic equations all count as learning.

Psychologists distinguish several forms. Classical conditioning links stimuli. Operant conditioning links actions to consequences. Observational learning occurs by watching others. Cognitive approaches emphasize mental representations, insight, and the organization of knowledge. Each tradition supplies its own experimental methods and theoretical vocabulary.

Not every change qualifies. Maturation, fatigue, and sensory adaptation can alter behavior temporarily without counting as learning. The key criteria are experience as the cause and relative permanence as the result.

• Change due to experience rather than maturation
• Relatively permanent
• Can be associative or cognitive
• Observable in behavior or inferred from performance

The definition remains deliberately broad so that laboratory paradigms and everyday skill acquisition can be studied under the same umbrella.