However, Ralph hadlearned a host of new things about crossing a street from hisexperience in Rome, changes in how he should propel him-self, staccato-style, across the street, attitudes about steppinginto traffic
There is nothing quite like experiencing something oneself. This reminds me of social psychology studies that concluded that people are significantly more likely to empathize with another's situation is they share a similar experience.
Time plays another rolein certain orientations when learning is attributed to the fre-quency with which individuals encounter certain conditionsor are embedded in particular experiences
I like this point. Other cultures perception of time can vastly differ from ours. For example, some cultures are much more lax when it comes to schooling schedule and that affects how they visualize the flow of learning within their community.
there are many times when we learn in spite of ourselves
How is learning defined here? If the goal is not to learn, how does that actually affect the conclusions we come to about the facts or associations we develop on the topic?
have underestimated the complexity of learningand led to a disregard for competing notions and to a frac-turing of the community along theoretical fault lines.
This makes sense and seems to be one of the most challenging aspects of educational research. Theories help guide methodology and practice. The time investment required to test specific theories longitudinally can be particularly tricky.
unconditioned-stimulus–unconditioned-response relations of classical conditioning
what are some consequences of social evolution that serve no purpose today? some cognitive consequences of evolution are not relevant in the way they were before (fight/flight response to everyday situations). how do we ascribe this "why" meaning in modern context?