Nature and Nature in Cognitive Development Essay Example for Free

Nature and Nature in Cognitive Development Essay Why are both nature and nurture important in perceptual development? How do both help a baby’s brain and sensory organs to develop? The question of whether nature or nurture is more important in terms of perceptual development has bee long debated. In general, there are two theories that explain how humans develop these perceptions. The Nativists claim that our brains are built or hardwired to recognize certain stimuli by both design and construction. In contrast, an Empiricist would say that we learn through experience how to perceive things. There was an experiment done by Nativist researchers that sought to determine how very young mammals are able to perceive. The data concluded that early infants were able to perceive quite a lot before they really had a chance to learn anything. Gibson and Walk’s the â€Å"visual cliff† experiment was one such experiment, in this test both young animals and 6 month old human infants were taken to a side of a visual cliff, the test subjects would avoid the clearly deep drop. This indicated that children can perceive visual depth and that visual depth dominates even touch information. Additionally, studies have been done that show babies can recognize faces and that they often prefer the visual stimulation of carton faces as opposed to the same features arranged at random. In other tests it was shown that babies can also recognize whether or not and object is coming directly at their face or not. These experiments show that even the undeveloped infant brain has considerable capacity for perceptual capabilities. In contrast, several Empiricists experiments have been done as well. In one such study, scientists sought to determine the effects of depriving developing animals from perceptual stimulations. These tests have consistently shown that the longer the subject is deprived, the more severe the consequences. For example, humans are sometimes born without sight, due to a clouded cornea. Later in life some elect to have surgery to repair this clouded cornea. The result is sight, these people can see but they cannot perceive what it is that they see. As time goes on they slowly learn to distinguish one object from another, but this is however quite easily interrupted. Often changing an objects position or context is quite enough to slow down or prevent recognition. To conclude, although some argue that perception is due to nature, while others argue for nurture, it may in fact be that the two factors are interdependent and rely on each other. Support for this idea comes from an experiment that studied rats and found that those raised in a perceptually restricted environment had smaller brain development than those raised in an enriched environment, suggesting that while we are born with innate capabilities we need the environment to ensure we develop our abilities to perceive well. The perceptual capabilities we have at birth must be strengthened continuously through perceptual stimulation, furthermore, it would seem that perception in general follows the use it or lose it principle. Just as unused muscles become week, so to do our senses if left unused. Nature and nurture are both essential to health y perceptual development; stimulation begins in the womb and quickly follows all the way through adulthood. Sources. Nature and Nurture in Perceptual Development. . www. indiana. edu. Web. 11 Feb 2013. http://www. indiana. edu/~p1013447/dictionary/natnurt. htm. . Experiencing Sensation and Perception. . physch. hanover. edu. Web. 11 Feb 2013. http://psych. hanover. edu/classes/sensation/chapters/Chapter 15. pdf. Arterberry, M. Perceptual Development. . Colby College. Web. 11 Feb 2013. http://www. elsevierdirect. com/brochures/Infant/PDFs/Perceptual development. pdf.

What About Here At Home? :: essays research papers

What About Here At Home?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With America at the heels of its President, it is now time to strike. Against terrorists, yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. It is time for the government to strike here at home. To reinsure safety to its citizens is the primary goal for the government right now - safety from foreign attacks, but also economic safety.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to do so, I am offering an idea so profound, so absurd, that many of you will not be able handle it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What the government should do right now is cut taxes. Tremendously. But wait a minute. We are entering a war and you want us to cut taxes? It is detrimental that right now we restore faith in investing. It is necessary in order for our economy to maintain, to ensure the survival of slumping businesses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Becoming clearer is the fact that we are beginning a long battle against terrorism. In other words, war has begun. One of the main reasons the U.S. economy was so gigantic from 1992-2000, was the absence of nuclear threat. Once the cold war ended, Americans had little fear of invasion. Simply put, Americans believed they would live longer. Therefore, personal discount rates declined, unleashing unlimited room for investment, and subsequently long term decline of interest rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now, we again face fear of nuclear attack. While it is fine for the President to insist on our spending, investing, and carrying on lives in normality, it simply is not realistic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To retreat this fear we all have, words will not do justice, only actions. If taxes are cut, across the board, citizens will have more to save, and equally more to invest. As far as businesses go, a tax cut would allow not only for more production, but also for more research, and a larger paycheck for you and I.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A large tax cut would also allow for new businesses to start, something very unlikely at this time without. An example of this are oil and drilling companies. With much of our oil coming from Arab and Muslim states, the time has come to drift away from dependency. If we could isolate ourselves financially from Middle Eastern states, then we have less to lose by going to war with them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The United States certainly isn’t the only country whose major supply of oil comes from the Middle East.

Special Needs Prisoner

Special Needs Prisoner David Thompson University of Phoenix Special Needs Prisoner The American penal system is comprised of every element of society imaginable. There are people from all walks of life being held in one prison or another across our great country for crimes they’ve committed or allegedly committed against mankind. Be it at the state, federal or county level, the U. S. prison system does not discriminate with regards to those who are physically challenged.Be it a prisoner who is mentally challenged or one whom is confined to a wheelchair, if they have committed a crime and are found guilty of such, they will be sentenced to facility that under most circumstances are equipped to handle prisoners with special needs. Take for example the criminally insane or those suffering with various kinds of mental illness: Round about 1955 the number of mental institution experienced a drawdown of types, in that they were not building any new facilities, despite the fact that approximately forty of the existing one’s had been shut down or were scheduled to be shut down.This change prompted the prison system to take over the role of caring for mentally ill inmates. As more and more prisons grew so did the role of the prison system to care for the influx of the special needs prisoners. Prisons were able to house and care for some 45,000 prisoners including those who were mentally ill, compared to that of a mental institutions ability to house some 3000 in a mental hospital. Perhaps one of the biggest drawback or downfalls related to this concept is that of the ability to rehabilitate the mentally ill.Because the prison system was/is not geared for actions such as this, many of those who are diagnosed with a mental illness usually find themselves serving their time, only to return to confinement a few years later, due to the prison systems inability to adequately treat and card for their sickness. But let’s not throw this all on the prison sys tem, as the private sector has just as much responsibility for this shortfall/s as does the penal system.Many communities simply do not have the funds necessary to open and operated programs to take care of the mentally ill. For those that do have something in place to combat the problem, their efforts seem to fall far short of the need. There seems to be far more people in need of help than the help that is available, and the more we look into the problem the more we see that this is not just limited to adult men and women, but children as well.The end result of which is the criminally insane sometimes find themselves back on the streets, as does many of the mentally ill. While incarceration may be somewhat more difficult on someone with a mental illness, prison officials try and combat this by housing the mentally ill in separate wards, to reduce violence, combat stress, and maintain order. Prison officials today try and provide specialized training and equipped to those who work with the mentally ill.Although improvements have been made, there is still much to accomplish as some patients do not transition well into some of the rehabilitation programs made available to them; for example the Drug and Alcohol program, many officials think that mentally ill patients can and does usually become extremely disruptive, during counseling sessions, which causes setbacks and limits the progress of others. Therefore, many of the disable, mentally ill, or otherwise hard to reach inmates/patients are turned away from rehabilitative parts of the program built around small group settings.Honestly speaking, there is very little room for care of the mentally ill within the prison system, as few places are equipped with the staff and specialist needed to care for these special patients. Try as we may, we can’t effectively make the connection needed to make a difference in these individuals lives. Not to mention the attitude/s the outside community takes towards those s uffering with mental handicaps.The lack of compassion, care and concern towards these less fortunate individuals does little to help the situation inside or outside prison walls, as we’re all struggling to make the best of a bad situation. We must stay focused and be extremely flexible as we seek to make changes in this area, in particular in that every failure has the potential to have widespread affects on everyone, including the department, and the community into which some of these people may be released.Taking a lackluster attitude towards helping these people rebuild their lives simply will not work. We must be committed to the care of prisons with special needs just as if they were able to afford whatever treatment is available. Combating mental illness is not easy, but in most cases it can be done. References: The Sentencing Project (Washington, DC), (2002), Mentally Ill Offenders in the Criminal Justice System: An Analysis and Prescription, John D. and Catherine T. M acArthur Foundation http://nicic. gov/Libary/017558

Bureaucracies Help More than They Hinder Foreing Policy...

In today’s world, there are a wide range of factors that impact all human lives. Each nation has its own strategy to deal with challenges and cope with the impacts to secure the maximum benefit for the nation and for the well-being of its citizens. Thus, it is important for states to apply the right instrument to position themselves at both internal and external levels, particularly in the international sphere. Foreign policy is a crucial tool for nations in dealing with other actors on the international stage; in order to secure their national interest, as well as to guide the appropriate direction for interacting with other actors in the world. Further, the bureaucracy is deemed as the prominent notion for constituting foreign policy. Generally, some narratives indicate that foreign policy making resulted from the output of the theory of bureaucratic politics which addresses the role of bureaucracies for facilitating the making of foreign policy. Thus, foreign policy could b e derived from various actors of bureaucratic politics that compete among actors to secure their interests in specific agendas and make a significant impact on foreign policy. This paper will assess the statement that ‘bureaucracies help more than they hinder foreign policy making’, by arguing that it is not quite true. Though, bureaucracies have been positioned as one of the most crucial factors for the making of foreign policy and also facilitate foreign policy making in multiple ways, bureaucracies