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The insufficiency of associative learning for explaining development: Three challenges to the associative account

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

Bennett I. Bertenthal
Bennett I. Bertenthal*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. bbertent@indiana.eduhttp://www.indiana.edu/~dcnlab/index.html
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Abstract

Three challenges to the sufficiency of the associative account for explaining the development of mirror mechanisms are discussed: Genetic predispositions interact with associative learning, infants show predispositions to imitate human as opposed to nonhuman actions, and early and later learning involve different mechanisms. Legitimate objections to an extreme nativist account are raised, but the proposed solution is equally problematic.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 193 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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