How Do We Learn?

Unable to attend tonights’s 5/19 discussion, a question has nevertheless arisen for me about learning with respect to its distinction from thinking: If learning can be characterized by material acquisition within a consistently formalized system, and thinking by voluntary behavior under conceptual constraints which is non-kinetic physiologically, can learning be truncated from thinking altogether, as indicated by the phrase “machine learning”? Or conversely, if a formalized system is consistently updated by new combinations of previously acquired material independently of preference tied to intuition of anticipated objects, could the updating-function approximate products produced by thinking to a point where requisition of intuitive contents tied to voluntary intellectual labor is eliminated and retainable only on an optional and elective basis? More directly, –can learning take place without thinking, since the products of thought can be successfully replicated for instrumental use in optimizing satisfaction of diverse goal-directed actions?