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Learning—Acquisition or Selection—Possibility versus Probability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

James B. Klee
James B. Klee*
Affiliation:
Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh
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Extract

It is quite common in our texts and periodicals to run across formulations of the learning process in which the word acquire is used in some way as part of the description. Individuals are said to “acquire” habits or skills or languages or attitudes or solutions or emotions. The organism is said to “acquire” certain of its traits from the environment (sometimes through experience, sometimes not) and even to “acquire” from heredity. Such usage is not technically incorrect. Webster defines acquire as follows:

acquire. 1. To gain by any means, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own. 2. To take on as part of one's nature or qualifications; to establish by means of repetition or effort, as characteristic in one's behavior or range of ability; as to acquire a habit. Syn., attain, procure, win, earn, secure; receive, learn, adopt, cultivate, affect. See obtain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 1947 , pp. 231 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1947

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