A process by which an animal’s experience may permanently alter their future behaviour, usually in a beneficial way. Learning allows an animal to respond more flexibly to the situations it encounters: learning abilities in different species vary widely and are adapted to the species’ environment. On a physiological level, learning involves changes in the connections of neurons in the central nervous system (see synaptic plasticity). Learning and memory are intimately linked, because new information can be linked to past experience recorded in memory and new associations formed. Numerous different categories of learning have been proposed, including habituation, associative learning (through conditioning), trial-and-error learning, insight learning, latent learning, and imprinting. See learning in animals (Feature).