Learning: One definition to rule them all?

Abstract

Learning is central across many disciplines, yet its definition remains fragmented, hindering theoretical progress and cross-disciplinary communication. We review debates on the definition of learning and propose a unifying, umbrella, definition: learning is a system's processing of information from its environment, resulting in a change of system properties that alter its behavioral potential and reactions to this information. This formulation supports interdisciplinary dialogue while allowing discipline-specific operationalizations.