BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF LEARNING

Cognitive psychology is related to the study of mental process like perception, attention, reasoning, thinking, problem solving, memory, learning, language and emotion, whereas, educational psychology is the study of how the human brain is trained in educational settings, effectiveness of educational interventions, psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools and organizations. 

                  Cognitive development of the learner is directly connected with learning. Theoretical framework in cognitivism deem that learning is a result of mental processes, namely, perception, thinking, memory, language and information processing, problem solving and decision-making resulting in learning behaviour. The outcome of interactions among the billions of neurons in the brain and nervous system is called ‘the mind’. Learning experiences are translated into electrical and chemical signals. These signals modify the connections among neurons in certain areas of the brain and make a significant difference in action. The sense of new experience re-organizes the neural pathways in the brain, which is called Neuro-plasticity (Singer 1995, Squire & Kandel 2009). 

        Brain Regions and Learning 

Cognitive Neuro-psychology research reveals that the structure and function of the brain are highly related to psychological processes. The cerebellum at the back of the brain is involved in the coordination of the human cognitive process and thinking (Giedd 2008). Neuro-psychological researches are carried out with the advancement of fMRI, MRI, PET, EEG, EMG, and Wearable mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) (Makeig et al 2008, Lowery 1998). Several discoveries address the strong relationship between brain, mind, learning and action. Brain regions and its associated learning behaviour are shown in the following Table.

Brain Regions and Learning

Brain Region	Involvement in Learning
Frontal lobe and parietal lobe of the cerebrum	Responsible for performing higher order thinking skills like analysis, synthesis, and   evaluation. (Takahashi et al 2007)
Visual Cortex	Mathematical Thinking and Visualization capabilities (Anderson  2011)
Wernicke’s area	Comprehension of language, also called speech area (Wernicke 1874)
Broca’s area	Speech area, searches for meaning in the context of the word (Binkofski & Buccino 2004)
Angular Gyrus	Decodes sounds and process written language, mathematics, spatial cognition, memory retrieval, attention (Schlaug et al 2010)
Aphasia	Able to fluently connect words (Wernicke 1874)
Mid Brain	Emotional brain serves as filter through which stimulus is passed to thinking areas of brain and for social motivation (Hara et al 2007)
Auditory Motors	Visual and auditory processing  (De Lussanet  & Osse  2012)