The study of the behavior of blind people can provide insight and clarification regarding the learning process of humans. If a man blind from birth has learned about shapes purely by touch, when he is cured of his blindness he will not be able to recognize these shapes only by sight.

The act of learning has several different aspects. One is recollection, in which a person discovers information that they had already knew, and his brain can be triggered to remember this information without being told it straight out. Learning, however, is also achieved through associations that one has been taught. In example, a person can figure out that an apple pie is baking without being told, based on the smell which they have come to associate with this. This information was not innate- if he had never been told or...