Can you UNLEARN something?

Answer 1

Let's put it this way: You have a pen, but no eraser. You can cross out stuff you've written down earlier. You can write over it so it is no longer legible and means something else. You may even fill in so much other information around it that your original note is lost among everything else.

This is the way your brain works. Pathways that are used are reinforced. Pathways that are not used eventually die off. You cannot ACTIVELY cause a pathway to die off, only passively (by not thinking about it) or indirectly (by reinforcing a different pathway to such a degree that the original one isn't likely to ever be used).

Learning can be lost, but not erased. So it goes.

Answer 2

Perhaps, if you train to discipline your mind to think or act otherwise. If by unlearn you mean erase or forget, then someone else said it well---with Alzheimers. For example, when a Geisha goes through training and must learn how to interact and carry on a conversation with older men, her older sister must "unlearn" the trait that was bred into Japanese women for centuries, which is to be quiet, reserved, polite, and not to freely speak your mind. The only way this "unlearning" can happen is to teach them otherwise how to be more open, outgoing, and somewhat more outspoken. So perhaps, in this sense, it is possible to "unlearn" but not to competely erase it from memory---only to train the mind to think and act otherwise.

Answer 3

Yes, you really can. I had to learn to be a certain way and do everything just the way someone else thought it should be. Did so for many years. It took a long time to forget and change, but I did unlearn those things and have become me.

Answer 4

I've grappled with this thought for the longest time. No, I doubt it's possible to "unlearn" anything; things are just been forgotten when they have not been in use over a period of time. Some psychologists claim that such "forgotten" things linger in the subconscious and, under the right conditions, those things can be "recalled" and "learned again."

Answer 5

1. Something learned can be forgotten.

2. Unlearning can also be accomplished by learning something that replaces the existing knowledge or information that is learned.

Many of us 'learn' about a Santa Claus. Many of us replace that knowledge, or learn something new that replaces it. The existence of a Santa Claus then is unlearned.

Answer 6

i think everytime you learn something new or update information you already know, you have to unlearn or break whatever methods you used to retain that information, so that it is more up to date-therefore unlearning something

Answer 7

I have unlearned to love some people. I call it deprogramming of emotions and desensitizing the senses.

Answer 8

I have been trying to unlearn how to smoke cigarettes and boy is it tough!

Answer 9

No - it is always there somewhere in your "computer" memory bank of life. Something that has proven to be insufficient or flawed, outdated gave rise to search for something better. However, you can put all that on the back burner, let it collect dust..... and get on with something that replaces it with something better.

Answer 10

Well not realy unless you actually preform the task of making yourself forget some useful information...In my philosifical terms im thinking everything you gain in your mind and life is going to be useful in one way or another!

Well hope i helped and have a great day!

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