Learning of Concepts: A Review of Relevant Advances Since 2010 and Its Inspirations for Teaching

Abstract

This article reviews the psychological and neuroscience achievements in concept learning since 2010 from the perspectives of individual learning and social learning, and discusses several issues related to concept learning, including the assistance of machine learning about concept learning. In terms of individual learning, current evidence shows that the brain tends to process concrete concepts through typical features (shared features); and for abstract concepts, semantic processing is the most important cognitive way. In terms of social learning, interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) is considered the main indicator of efficient knowledge transfer (such as teaching activities between teachers and students), but this phenomenon only broadens the channels for concept sources and does not change the basic mode of individual concept learning. Ultimately, this article argues that the way the human brain processes concepts depends on the concept’s own characteristics, so there are no “better” strategies in teaching, only more “suitable” strategies.