• Event Date: April 1, 2003
  • Event Start Time: 1:00 PM
  • Event End Time: 2:00 PM
  • Event Location: Temple University, Department of Psychology
  • Event Type: Talks: RuCCS Colloquia
  • Event Semester: Spring 2003
  • Event Contact: Nora Newcombe
  • Event Extra info: <a href="http://www.temple.edu/neuroscience/newcombe.html">Nora Newcombe</a>
Making Space: The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Re-evaluated
Nora Newcombe
Temple University, Department of Psychology

Abstract:

Preschool children and even infants have shown surprising abilities in the spatial domain (i.e., surprisingly better than those postulated by Piaget). However, the discovery of such abilities does not compel adoption of a nativist stance. First, there is important developmental change following these starting points. Second, although there have been claims of an early geometric module that would favor nativism, recent evidence does not support this idea. Spatial development is best conceptualized as the product of experience-expectant interactions.