This has nothing to do "blank slate" belief. You do love your straw men! Perhaps you can write another book using more straw men to lie to the public telling them that Evolutionary Psych. has not been largely invalidated by developmental neuroscience & constructivist research.
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Elaborate.
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Research suggests that genetics plays essentially no role in shaping specific functional regions of neocortex. Essentially any region of the neocortex can assume any function. Specific functionality is a product of experience and self-organization of like types of information.
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(2) This suggests a general-purpose model of the brain, not the highly modular one argued for by Evo. Psych. Constructivist research supports this as it has shown that learning proceeds along a similar pattern of development regardless of the specific subject matter.
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(3) For example, learning language has similar pattern of development as learning math. Nothing special about how language develops. If Evo. Psych. was correct, we would expect to see a unique pattern of development in almost every subject matter.
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(1) The similarities between math and science seems reasonable. At the level of abstraction, math and language is not that dissimilar. You equate the sensory appearance of an orange with the word "orange" instance. But, more specific mechanisms are localized in specific regions.
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(2) For example memory consolidation functions are associated with hippocampus, interpretation of visual stimuli is associated with occipital lobe etc. The whole structure of the brain itself is written in our genes. So I don't see where the anti evolutionary psych rhetoric is
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(3) coming from. The way I see it, evolution gave us the apparatus. There is some plasticity based on environment, but developmental environments tend to be fairly homogeneous. Genie, for instance, didn't develop language because nobody ever spoke around her as a child. Rare.
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What a stupid strawman. Ignoring the fact that this was a joke, believing as a parent that you should give your child every opportunity to maximize potential does not require believing in blank slatism.
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I'll go ahead and assume Pinker believes children will achieve their full potential, whatever the circumstances, as long as they're kept alive. (Since we're all getting hay fever today.)
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Bingo. How difficult is it to acknowledge that innate qualities are modified by environmental influences? This so-called anti-blank-slatist crowd seems intent on amplifying the lunatic fringe on this issue.
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It’s like my first week on Twitter, I was delighted that I found so many ppl debunking flat-earthers. Yay, science! [one week later] Christ, this is tiresome.
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hey Steve do you think maybe the difference between those two suggestions might explain something about declining infant mortality rates, or is that just due to the enlightenment. thanks
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How would any of those things reduce infantry mortality? Were infants dying because parents weren’t meeting their spiritual needs or had too much negative energy?
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"physical, nutritional, and social needs [...] careful not to [...] improperly medicate [...] or neglect" or, you know, just being generally more interested in the child's welfare than the minimum amount required to "feed them sometimes"
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None of the stuff in that power point slide would reduce infant mortality. Also that a dumb strawman of what parents did before the shit in that slide. Again, point me to which things in that slide would reduce infant mortality.
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PHYSICAL, NUTRITIONAL, AND SOCIAL NEEDS NOT IMPROPERLY MEDICATING OR NEGLECTING CAN YOU READ?
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This implies that none of this was an aspect of parenting before, which is again stupid, and again is a consequence of medical advances.
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Previous generations of parents did try to mold their offspring like Mississippi mud. Don't speak unless you're spoken to, and all. Then they fed them sometimes.
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How you say ... False dichotomy? Tiresome.
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