nativism vs emprisism
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The argument between nativism and empiricism is the basis of all research into the development of perception. Nativists believe that humans are born with all their perceptual functions ready to be used, while empiricists believe that perceptual abilities have to be learned and adapted to. Nativists believe that newborns or young infants are born with the skills of good auditory acuity, adequate visual acuity and excellent tactual and taste perception(B&B). They do not have to be "taught" what to look at and there are rules for looking, listening and touching that can be detected at birth(B&B). I believe this to be true as with my own experience with my children. When they were first born they knew how to grasp my finger and would respond to voices by looking there way. There are so called "rules", I call them stages that infants go through, for example recognizing visual objects or figures, such as grandma and a brother or sister. At 4 months of age, B&B talked about that the infant was easier to test because of the fact they were more attentive, more able to focus, and more of a stable state. They also talked about the perceptual development of babies born late, posterm, and babies born on time or earlier, preterm or normal term. I believe it to be true when I read about the study Yonas (1981) had done...