<p>I think this question is based on a wrong premise: adults definitely learn without conscious effort all the time (for example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_memory" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;implicit learning/implicit memory&quot;</a>), and infants put a ton of conscious effort into learning language: they attend carefully to faces and language and from shortly after birth are able to recognize their native language compared to other sounds (for example, see <em>Mehler, J., Jusczyk, P., Lambertz, G., Halsted, N., Bertoncini, J., &amp; Amiel-Tison, C. (1988). A precursor of language acquisition in young infants. Cognition, 29(2), 143-178.</em>).</p>
<p>In development more broadly as well as for language specifically, there is also the idea of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period_hypothesis" rel="nofollow noreferrer">critical periods</a>: times during development when brain function is specifically organized for learning. There is some necessary trade-off between learning and actually acting on what you have learned. You wouldn't want new information to rapidly replace the old, especially when what has already been learned has been repeated many many times.</p>
<p>Learning in the brain is associated with strengthening particular connections (synapses) between neurons, but also from removing other connections. Information is represented by the diversity of potential patterns: there is less total potential to store information when everything is connected to everything else, while more potential to learn. So, early on there are a ton of connections, and especially through childhood there is a massive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaptic_pruning" rel="nofollow noreferrer">synaptic pruning</a> that occurs as part of brain maturation.</p>
<hr />

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-18T03:58:19.013Z
Yeah I think this makes sense. But since I can't remember when I was an infant, I guess I can't know what it feels like to learn as a baby. Another way to think about this is what makes the brain during a critical period, and is it possible to artificially create a critical period so I can for example quickly learn calculus.
No Name
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-16T14:01:38.703Z
2024-09-16T14:01:38.703Z
Bryan Krause
<p>Learning requires so much time and resource investment as well as conscious effort. Building schools, writing textbooks, paying attention in classes, taking rereading notes, etc. From K-12 and beyond, we spend so much time just to guide our brains to make the neural connections we want.</p>
<p>But it isn't always like that. Even for languages that we consciously categorize as difficult to learn, such as chinese and arabic, babies can learn them with ease. The parents don't have to be professional teachers. They don't have to design powerpoints for classes. The baby can also learn a language while playing games or eating food. The baby isn't taking notes and paying attention to lectures. I'm sure there's not much conscious input/effort from the baby to learn, but it just happens. And the results are great! It's really hard to forget our native language.</p>
<p>And it's not even restricted to just one language. If the household speaks multiple languages, the baby can get a hang of every language with ease.</p>
<p>Now compare to how we would learn a new language after that first few years. Lots of memorization, note cards, practice, effort, and time.</p>
<p>What happened? What changed? What gives babies the ability to learn such a complex thing without much conscious effort, and why can't we do it now? I remember trying to learn a second language as early as just 6 years old, and it was already difficult with lots of practice needed.</p>

<learning><language>
Why can babies learn without conscious input but we can't?
No Name
# Why can babies learn without conscious input but we can't?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-09-16)

Learning requires so much time and resource investment as well as conscious effort. Building schools, writing textbooks, paying attention in classes, taking rereading notes, etc. From K-12 and beyond, we spend so much time just to guide our brains to make the neural connections we want.

But it isn't always like that. Even for languages that we consciously categorize as difficult to learn, such as chinese and arabic, babies can learn them with ease. The parents don't have to be professional teachers. They don't have to design powerpoints for classes. The baby can also learn a language while playing games or eating food. The baby isn't taking notes and paying attention to lectures. I'm sure there's not much conscious input/effort from the baby to learn, but it just happens. And the results are great! It's really hard to forget our native language.

And it's not even restricted to just one language. If the household speaks multiple languages, the baby can get a hang of every language with ease.

Now compare to how we would learn a new language after that first few years. Lots of memorization, note cards, practice, effort, and time.

What happened? What changed? What gives babies the ability to learn such a complex thing without much conscious effort, and why can't we do it now? I remember trying to learn a second language as early as just 6 years old, and it was already difficult with lots of practice needed.

**Tags:** learning, language


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-09-16. Score: 2

I think this question is based on a wrong premise: adults definitely learn without conscious effort all the time (for example, ["implicit learning/implicit memory"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_memory)), and infants put a ton of conscious effort into learning language: they attend carefully to faces and language and from shortly after birth are able to recognize their native language compared to other sounds (for example, see *Mehler, J., Jusczyk, P., Lambertz, G., Halsted, N., Bertoncini, J., & Amiel-Tison, C. (1988). A precursor of language acquisition in young infants. Cognition, 29(2), 143-178.*).

In development more broadly as well as for language specifically, there is also the idea of [critical periods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period_hypothesis): times during development when brain function is specifically organized for learning. There is some necessary trade-off between learning and actually acting on what you have learned. You wouldn't want new information to rapidly replace the old, especially when what has already been learned has been repeated many many times.

Learning in the brain is associated with strengthening particular connections (synapses) between neurons, but also from removing other connections. Information is represented by the diversity of potential patterns: there is less total potential to store information when everything is connected to everything else, while more potential to learn. So, early on there are a ton of connections, and especially through childhood there is a massive [synaptic pruning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaptic_pruning) that occurs as part of brain maturation.

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> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Yeah I think this makes sense. But since I can't remember when I was an infant, I guess I can't know what it feels like to learn as a baby. Another way to think about this is what makes the brain during a critical period, and is it possible to artificially create a critical period so I can for example quickly learn calculus.  

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