cthia wrote:She, they, pointed out that the human brain is an unmolded lump of clay that becomes molded through experiences, interactions and the environment which affects the forming of neural connections. Proper stimulation is very important to ensure intelligence, all else being equal. The brain has to be exercised from infancy, with the proper stimulation. This fact sits center stage why blocks, Legos and toys are important to cognitive development. Absent this set of criteria could result in lower intelligences. IOW, we very well may be a product of our environment.
JohnRoth wrote:There are a lot of very qualified people who would dispute that. The "undifferentiated lump of clay" is very similar to Rousseau's "blank slate." It's an influential viewpoint, but it doesn't work. The human brain has a very intricate structure that's there in the fetus long before there's any experience to shape it; various parts come online at different times during childhood. There is a very great amount of experience programming going on, but you could not, for example, learn language unless there were pre-existing brain structures that could be programmed by experience.
That experience does have effects on the small-scale structure of various areas, but the large-scale structure is there first.
Chimpanzees, for example, cannot be taught language in any realistic sense. They can't learn any form of tool-making more intricate than stripping the twigs off a branch so they can stick it into a termite mound, and their throwing skills are pitiful. The brain structures needed for those activities simply aren't there.
She isn't denying the existing complex structure. That is a given. What she is saying is that complex structure has to be molded. Was Einstein inherently any different than the rest of us, or was he conditioned by certain experiences and teachings during his formative years? She believes that all people have the potential to be geniuses, all else being equal (healthy brain, body). What road would lead to that genius? What stimulations and experiences and at what age? I remember this...
"It is much harder to learn a language the older one gets. It is much harder to learn a foreign language the older one gets. Exposing the mind to it early on forces the forming of specific patterns of neural connections more conduscive to the grasping of language. And a more robust structure overall."
They talked about being exposed to the rudiments of walking early on with the help of a baby walker. So that an infant can explore balance and the logic involved with the development of such a natural human skill, and this timely effect on neural connections, as opposed to a child withheld in a playpen because of busy and/or lazy and or misinformed parents. What about being taught the skill of riding a bike as early as possible. Museums, aquariums. Exposure to the stars. Being taught to count early on.
The brain is like a muscle that must be exercised and trained. Consider this...
Let A = Birth IQ
Let Z = MaxIQ (genius)
Let AS = All Stimuli (Sound, music, the beach, colors, toys, people, cars, airplanes, pets, etc., etc.
Let AK = All Knowledge (various forms of teachings.)
Let's say that every A has the potential to reach Z.
Infant A has 10 % exposure to all variables...
Infant B has no exposure...
Infant C has 75 % exposure...
If these exposures are timely...
If these exposures are untimely...
And of course, there are going to be exceptions. Like the really poor kid who was inspired by the innocuous, insignificant yellow play toy given to him by a stranger that jumpstarted his inner imagination and initiated an explosion of neural connections.
In a nutshell, of course.
