早期经验和人类的发展

EARLY EXPERIENCE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

经验对行为的发展起着多么大的作用?这个问题是传统的先天论者和经验论者论战的中心。一方认为婴儿在生物学上已经具备能够适应感觉刺激的能力,并以一种有系统的方式与外在环境交互作用。这种观点认为儿童随着年龄的增长所完成的较复杂技能是来自成熟而不是来自经验。经验论者的观点可以William James的论述为代表:“

The present paper comments on the continuing debate in psychology as to therelative influence of maturation and experience in development. Attention is also givento the critical period concept, which supposes that biological and behavioral systemsare most open to environmental changes during early experience. The examplesdiscussed include visual space perception, handedness, Ianguage and sexual dimorphism.The relative importance of extrinsic as opposed to intrinsic determinants of develop-ment seems to vary from behavior to behavior. The claim that the effects of earlyexperience are irreversible may be valid for specific behaviors, but not generally. Moredetailed research is needed before basing educational practices on concepts such ascritical period.