Dynamic learning systems

Building upon experience

The research began with a question: could learning contribute to more than the information supplied in an individual lesson?

An encounter takes place in the context of what has already been learnt. New information may become relevant to an earlier idea, extend an established relationship or create a connection that was not previously available.

We investigate how these developments can contribute to a system over time. The programme studies learning that builds upon itself, with earlier experience becoming useful in what follows.

Learning that remains available

Recorded experiments demonstrated that learnt relationships could persist and be used later without being taught again.

Those relationships also contributed to subsequent selections. Earlier learning remained relevant beyond the original lesson.

This established a concrete foundation for continuity: retained information could take part in later activity.

What had been learnt remained available to contribute again.

New connections becoming useful

The research also demonstrated successful use of relationships that had not been directly taught during the tested session.

In symbolic experiments, prior learning and subsequent lessons supported selections involving those relationships. This showed that the usefulness of the learning could extend beyond the individual relationships explicitly supplied.

This provides a foundation for investigating how useful connections can develop across a wider range of information.

Earlier learning had helped make a further connection usable.

Why earlier learning matters

Another result concerned the influence of learning history.

In recorded experiments, the same later lesson had different relational consequences when earlier learning differed. What had already been learnt affected which further connections became available.

This gives the research a concrete basis for studying development over time. The significance of a new encounter can depend on the history that precedes it.

Earlier learning can therefore matter both as something retained and as a contribution to what later learning makes possible.

The research ahead

Dynamic learning systems brings retention, developing connections and the influence of experience into one research direction.

The recorded achievements support further investigation into richer information, more demanding situations and the usefulness of learning across successive encounters.

The programme takes this forward into systems that build on what they have learnt, developing connections that help them approach what comes next.

Retaining what has been learnt. Developing useful connections. Building upon each encounter.