Chapter 5 - Innate

Question 1

Empiricism

Answer 1

A philosophical position that holds that the mind is initially a blank slate and all knowledge is the result of learning (see nativism and constructivism).

Question 2

Nativism

Answer 2

A philosophical position that holds that certain psychological abilities are inborn and therefore not learned. More recent interpretations of nativism postulate innate mechanisms for acquiring certain abilities such as language (see empiricism and constructivism).

Question 3

Constructivism

Answer 3

A position held by Piaget which
proposes that development occurs as a result
of an interaction between innate principles and
experience (see nativism and empiricism).

Question 4

Epigenetic Landscape

Answer 4

The analogy to describe the observation by Piaget that although children have very different experiences, they nevertheless tend to develop in very similar ways, for instance, reaching the major development milestones at approx same age. Enviro conditions affect path ball takes, these effects are always contrained by the structuve of the landscape

Question 5

Domain specificity - domain general and specific

Answer 5

domain general learning is like old style lego - simple set of elements and processes that can be used to learn potentially anything but longer and not very well
Domain specific - like modern lego: you can learn something very quickly and very well but only really works for the specific thing it is designed to be used for

Question 6

Modularity

Answer 6

The claim that the mind contains innate faculties each designed for a particular purpose (such as language, face processing). Most
famously advocated by philosopher Jerry Fodor but modified by Tooby and Cosmides and other
evolutionary psychologists to give it a Darwinian twist.

Question 7

Imprinting

Answer 7

A mechanism explored by Konrad Lorenz whereby chicks rapidly acquire a representation of their ‘mother’ and are thus able to identify her

Question 8

Critical Period + Sensitive Period

Answer 8

critical A developmental period within which certain experiences must be had in order for them to be learned. There is evidence to suggest that in the development of the visual system, form example, certain inputs have to be experienced before a certain age in order for vision to develop normally (see sensitive period).

sensitive - Like a critical period but less
hard and fast. During a sensitive period certain
skills are acquired more rapidly than at other
times.

Question 9

Theory of Mind

Answer 9

The ability to understand the mental states of others. Also called mind-reading or
naive psychology.

Question 10

Conspec vs Conlern

Answer 10

Conspec is innately specified, subcortical set of principles
that are responsible for directing attention towards stimuli
that resemble human faces, but this knowledge is crude
and cannot distinguish between primitive and more
detailed face-like stimuli

Conlern fleshes out the primitive representation based on
experience of looking at faces and forms a more realistic
representation of what a face is like

Question 11

Piaget’s development theory

Answer 11

epigenetic landscape, infant no understanding of physics and has to learn practically about the physical world, even that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight