F. Frank LeFever wrote:
> Long ago (e.g. 40 years ago?) the concept of "critical periods"
> developed out of experiments in which animals (cats, usually?) were
> deprived of normal pattern vision (translucent goggles? I forget), and
> normal pattern vision never developed IF the period of deprivation was
> at certain (early) age.
Right- Hubel & Weisel. They got the Nobel for this (along with Roger
Sperry). They showed that the tytpes of pattern-responding cells that
developed in visual cortex was dependant on early experience.
> On the OTHER hand, there have been studies with rats in raised in
> rather sparsely furnished cages compared with those raised in
> "enriched" environments--opportunities for much climbing, exploration,
> objects to manipulate, etc. I believe these studies showed differences
> at behavioral, neuroanatomical (histological) and neurochemical levels,
> showing an advantage for enriched rearing.
True.
What we can learn form this: Don't rely on Time and Newsweek to deliver
scientific reporting. ;-) The more stimulation you can provide to a child,
the better, and the earlier you provide it, the better. One of the
strongest early-childhood correlates to later academic success is whether
the child was read to. Surprise.
In <nospam-2002990011020001 at iq-ind-as001-219.iquest.net>
>nospam at nospm.com (LauraMom) writes:
> >
> ..... And, of course, I suppose that I want
> >to believe that all the parenting work I put in mattered :)
It did.
--
Michael Edelman
