Evolutionary psychology has a significant link with nativism, but the difficulty is that various individuals interpret concepts like 'nativism' and 'innate' exceptionally differently. Claiming that language is intrinsic, for example, is patently untrue. New-born cannot talk or comprehend language, and the language a kid learns will be determined by the linguistic context in which he or she grows up.
When Noam Chomsky or Steven Pinker argues that language is inherent, they do not suggest that newborns are born with complete knowledge of the language; instead, they indicate that children are born with predispositions that allow them to acquire language quickly. The Santa Barbara School of evolutionary psychology, which rose to popularity in the 1990s, claims that the mind is built up of intrinsic mental modules. These are domain-specific specialist processing units in charge of various sorts of data, such as language, physics, faces, cheater detection, and interpreting mental states. Furthermore, these modules exist because natural selection created them.
However, it should be noted that such modules are not necessarily intended to map onto specific brain areas in the way of Gall's phrenological theory of human psychology. Functions like language likely include using brain systems of various widely dispersed areas. According to Cosmides and Tooby, in addition to general-purpose learning algorithms, we can anticipate the mind to have developed processes tailored to specific issues that our forefathers experienced in the ancestral environment.
Humans, like many other social animals, must be able to recognize individuals of their species (known as conspecifics). Identifying someone as our mother, sister, or sworn enemy substantially changes how we respond to them. According to Cosmides and Tooby, natural selection will likely have equipped humans with systems that allow us to recall and distinguish human faces.
Innate mental capacities do not exist, and if they did, it would be a death knell for nativism in general and evolutionary psychology in particular. Taken alone, it simply argues that inherited mental faculties play no role in the genesis of individual differences. This is significant because contemporary evolutionary psychology thought distinguishes between the assertion that individual differences are intrinsic and the claim that individual similarities are innate.
It is maintained that these two propositions are logically independent. Consider the following example to illustrate why. It is generally known that the fact that most of us are born with five digits on the one hand (rather than four or six) is entirely attributable to the genetic programming that governs the development of the individual's hand.
In contrast, the fact that some of us have less than five digits is nearly entirely due to the environment; for example, a finger may have been lost in an accident, or a toxin may have interfered with the individual's growth during fetal development. This is because heritability is a measure of the variation in a trait owing to genes, not the extent to which something is 'inherited.' Because finger number variation is virtually entirely environmental, there is no variation owing to genes, and so heritability is zero.
The early emergence of knowledge of the physical world is evidence of the presence of an intrinsic physics module. However, as we have shown, many physical principles (for example, gravity) appear to originate in the first six months rather than being there from birth (recall, however, the argument stated above regarding puberty: the fact that a skill is not present from birth does not imply that it is not inherent). According to Carey and Spelke (1994), newborns are born with fundamental physical principles that govern their increasing understanding of the physical world based on their experiences, in terms of whether it is proof of intrinsic modules, as some evolutionists believe.
Various evidence has been presented to support the concept that people are born with inbuilt mental modules. Two of these have a developmental character and are suited for this chapter. The first stems from an examination of neonatal and young infant competencies. If we discover that some talents are present from birth or appear shortly after, this might imply that they are intrinsic.
However, the contrary is invalid: just because something arises later in life does not indicate it is not innate, such as pubic hair. Developmental abnormalities provide the second line of evidence. Some illnesses that appear in infancy or early childhood are distinguished by impairing some capacities while sparing others. It has been suggested that the illness destroys specific mental modules (such as those involved in language acquisition) while sparing others. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to examining both categories of evidence.
One apparent test for inherent talent is whether it develops at birth or shortly after. Human babies appear so helpless that it is tempting to imagine that, except for a few fundamental behaviors and reflex acts, they have no actual cognitive capacities at all and that all of the competencies that older children have are slowly learned via interaction with the environment.
The most prominent developmental of all time, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), articulated this viewpoint. He considered his viewpoint an alternative to philosopher John Locke's extreme environmentalism and Descartes' extreme nativism. Piaget, on the other hand, understood development as a process in which the child actively creates an understanding of the world.
The concept of domain specialization relates to the notion that cognitive processes and skills can be tailored to particular fields or areas of knowledge. Domain specialization in spatial behavior implies that humans may have specialized cognitive processes and skills unique to spatial activities. These can include two major survival parts, landscape preference, and navigation. According to research, spatial behavior is domain-specific, and various spatial activities may necessitate distinct cognitive processes and abilities.
Individuals may perform better on tasks more closely linked to their specialization or training; for example, spatial navigation tasks may depend on distinct cognitive processes than spatial memory tasks. Studies have also found that spatial abilities range across cultures and may be affected by environmental variables such as exposure to various spatial activities. People who grow up in settings with more complicated spatial arrangements, such as cities, may develop better spatial skills than people who grow up in less complex environments.
Evolutionary psychology has a significant link with nativism, but various individuals interpret concepts like 'nativism' and 'innate' differently. The Santa Barbara School of evolutionary psychology claims that the mind is built up of intrinsic mental modules, which are domain-specific specialist processing units in charge of various sorts of data, such as language, physics, faces, cheater detection, and interpreting mental states.
Evidence has been presented to support the concept that people are born with inbuilt mental modules, such as neonatal and young infant competencies and developmental abnormalities. Domain specialization on spatial behavior implies that humans may have specialized cognitive processes and skills unique to spatial activities. Studies have also found that spatial abilities range across cultures and may be affected by environmental variables such as exposure to various spatial activities.
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