Final answer:
Adults learn differently from younger individuals primarily because they bring a wealth of previous experiences to new learning situations, engage in postformal thought, and require understanding of the application of new knowledge.
Step-by-step explanation:
Adults differ from their younger counterparts in their approach to learning, largely influenced by their life experiences. A correct answer to how adults learn differently is that adults enter a learning situation with previous experiences which can both assist and interfere with the process of learning new material. Unlike young learners who tend to accept new information more readily, adults often must reconcile new concepts with their established understanding of the world.
In addition to these experiential differences, adults typically exhibit postformal thought. This means they have the ability to incorporate past experiences and apply them to new, multifaceted problems. Adults are not just interested in the factual 'what' of learning, but also the 'why' and 'how' it applies to the real world, suggesting that adults are more interested in knowing why they need to know something before they are willing to invest effort into learning it.
Research into cognitive development during adulthood shows that learning is an active, complex process that continues to evolve over the lifespan, and can be influenced by several cognitive and personal factors such as self-efficacy.