With greater interest, the processing of information at the time of learning becomes deeper. At the deepest level, the information is processed semantically, and is linked by a network of associations with various cues in the LTM. Therefore, they are learned and remembered better. A person interested to play cricket, read novels, or collect stamps would learn the act more quickly and maintain it for a longer period of time. The amount of effort spent on learning the skills that are interesting is much less, as the processing is automatic.

Individuals differ in their favorite ways of learning and remembering. Materials that are not interesting are not attended to at the time of learning.. Materials that are unpleasant and painful are repressed back into deep chamber of unconscious, and therefore, are not available for conscious recall.

A learner has his unique learning style, which has been developed during the course of socialization. His approaches to the learning materials are based on his cultural background and unique pattern of abilities. Some have analytic, while others have relational approach to learning. Those with a relational learning style learn materials best through exposure to a full unit or phenomenon. Parts of the unit are understood only by understanding their relationship to the whole. In contrast, people with an analytical learning style do best when they carry out an analysis of the principles and components underlying a phenomenon. After they master the fundamental principles and components, they are best able to understand the full content. The distinction between the two learning approaches is analogous to top-down and bottom- up processing.

William James remarked that the greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their fate by changing their attitudes of mind. Attitude determines the subject’s emotional and motivational dispositions towards the learning material. Most cognitive and complex forms of learning are greatly influenced by whether or not the subject has the right kind of attitude towards the learning situation.