What Is Learning Capacity In Learning?

Learning capacity can be defined as ways that individuals recognise, absorb and use knowledge (Henley 2014) (1). According to Vocabulary.com (2014), the word capacity means the ability to do something. From here, we can describe learning capacity as the ability to learn (2). Learning occurs continuously throughout a person’s lifetime. Since young, children learn to identify objects; teenagers learn to improve study habits which adults learn to solve complex problems which are all connected to our learning capacity (Dynamic Flight, 2003) (3).Everyone is born with the capacity to learn, however, it varies between individuals. Some have a greater learning capacity while some do not. Researches have been done to show that learning capacity interplay

For example, we learn and perform more successfully when we feel secure, happy or excited about the subject matter (Boekaerts,1993; Oatly & Nundy, 1996). It also has the potential to interfere with learning as we may been easily distracted from learning if we feel anger, anxiety or sad. Emotions may interfere our learning capacity by limiting our capacity to balance emotional issues with learning, creating anxiety towards learning and triggering emotional responses in learning. We may have difficulty in learning if our mind are cluttered with distracting thoughts; we will feel anxious in learning which causes us to not feeling competent while learning; we will also get upset easily when we face any negative comments while learning which will impede our further learning (Linda et al. 2014) (3). Another aspect of emotion is our mood as it is clear that mood affects what is noticed and encoded. When our mood match the mood we were in when experiencing and learning information, we tend to be able to remember easier (Mempowered 2011). According to Art Markman (2010), people in a positive mood learned to classify items that required a rule-based strategy faster than those in a neutral or negative mood. Finding suggests that positive mood has specific influence on learning as it affetcs the ability to learn things that require some amount of flexibility and creativity

A person’s perception towards his/her learning may bring positive or negative influence on the learning process. According to educational experts and psychologists, a person who has negative attitude could lead to a ‘defeatist mentality and self fulfilling prophecy’. Therefore, a person who has such attitude will be resisting to change. Attitudes towards learning not only affect the amount of learning but also the desire for education throughout life (Dr P.2012) (5). For example, when we are learning certain subjects and we feel good in learning it, we tend to be able to concentrate on it better. In contrast, if we dislike learning it, we tend to not paying attention to it while learning which cause us to be not able to learn