# Facts & Learning Facts and Learning _What is the relationship of facts to learning?  Do we obtain facts from learning, or does learning come from facts?_ In order to understand the relationship of facts to learning we must first comprehend some “facts” about facts and learning.  I will begin with learning, and save the startling facts about facts for later. The term learning is used to describe the self organization in complex systems that creates new structures which influence future behavior.  Learning occurs when a prediction is made about the consequence of a behavior, the behavior is practiced, and there is feedback regarding whether the consequence was a match or mis-match with the prediction.  If there is a mis-match the behavior is generally repeated until there is a match.  The match of the consequence to the prediction causes creation of a new structure which will create similar behavior in similar circumstances in the future. It is commonly believed that a fact is a presentation of objective reality.  A fact, however, is how we represent objective reality to ourselves.  In other words, a fact is a construct of the human mind to describe and explain how our sense interpret reality.  Thus, since facts are re-presentations - rather than presentations - of reality, there is no certainty in facts, only relatively high degrees of probability.  Facts are a paradox, because it is a fact that there are no facts. What then is the relationship of facts to learning?  The predictions of the consequences of behavior, which form the basis of learning, are based for the most part on “facts.”  Thus it can be seen that learning is actually driven by known facts rather than simply a process for acquiring new facts. The most important thing to consider is that since facts are uncertain processes which cause learning need to be designed to also reexamine the validity of the facts used to make the prediction. # References / Links