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From: tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu ("Timothy J. Horton")
Subject: abstract for York seminar - forwarded from mailing list
Message-ID: <8803091500.AA24437@ai.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu (Timothy J. Horton)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Distribution: tor
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 88 10:00:42 EST


From: Michael Friendly <FRIENDLY@yorkvm1.bitnet>
Sender: Cognitive Science Discussion Group <COGSCI-L@yorkvm1.bitnet>
Date: Wed Mar  9 09:33:57 1988

     
        :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
        |                                                               |
        |                 Cognitive Science Discussion Group            |
        |                                                               |
        |   Speaker : Juan Pascual Leone (Psychology, York University)  |
        |   Title   : "Human Development: Why it is not knowledge       |
        |              acquisition or unfolding of innate  competence   |
        |   Date    : Friday, Mar. 12, 1988 -- 1pm                      |
        |   Location: Rm 207 Behavioural Science Bldg., York University |
        |                                                               |
        :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
     
                                    Abstract
                                    ________
        There are some paradoxes of cognition that speak against develop-
        ment being either  pure acquisition of knowledge  or unfolding of
        innate  competencies. Of them, I shall mention the learning para-
        dox, the psychogenetic (or equilibration)  paradox,  the symbolic
        communication (or human mediation) paradox, and the human- compe-
        tence evolutionary paradox.
     
           There are also  data speaking against these  two extreme solu-
        tions to Development.  I will  briefly illustrate data from three
        domains of experience:  motor performance,  visual processing and
        language.   Since these  are distinct domains in  the brain,  the
        data's  common stage-wise  developmental  pattern speaks  against
        both  a  knowledge-acquisition  account  of  development  and  an
        innate- competence  account in the  manner of the  Chomskians and
        the neo-empiricists.
     
           Having given some of the theoretical and empirical reasons for
        abandoning both extreme environmentalist  and extreme maturation-
        ist explanations of development, the real problem becomes provid-
        ing a satisfactory middle-way solution. My middle way solution is
        called dialectical constructivism This solution includes the fol-
        lowing elements: (1) a repertoire of innate content-specific sen-
        sorimotor modalities and affective modalities; (2) an innate rep-
        ertoire  of   "silent  operators"  or   general-purpose  hardware
        capacities--heuristics for processing and coordinating the infor-
        mation obtained by (1);  (3) an innate system of organismic prin-
        ciples that serves to functionally  bring together and coordinate
        (1)  and  (2);  (4)  a  small repertoire of  innate informational
        knowledge structures.
     
           I will use the example of driving  a car to illustrate how the
        three accounts of  development differ and to  show the advantages
        of the middle way. I will then, if time allows, show how the mid-
        dle way explains the paradoxical data and the paradoxes mentioned
        at the beginning of the talk.