Nivedita Kamath Week #16: Reality From Memory
Reality From Memory
In my last blog, I discussed two innate behaviors present in animals and began researching whether humans have exhibited similar unlearned algorithmic behaviors. When a baby is born, its instinct is to cry as response to new outside stimuli which the brain may perceive as harmful. Being unable to run or change its surroundings, babies innately verbalize their distress instead
Without the warmth, comfort, and attention of an adult, newborns would not be able to support themselves. The brain and body are not synced perfectly, leaving nothing but survival instincts to control their emotions and behavior. However, as humans have evolved to value learning over brute survival of the fittest, we have been able to adapt our surroundings to fit our needs. We no longer need to hunt, compete for mates, migrate, or focus our entire lives on such purposes. Our unlearned behavior may simply be intuition and a unique ability for pattern recognition.
Before a child can make decisions based on learned knowledge and memory of prior experiences, their intuition is all the brain can utilize. In mere months, instead of learning how to survive, infants begin to understand intuitive physics or common “givens” about their reality. If a child has a glass of water in their hand, they soon learn that without holding it upright, the cup and water will simply fall down. If the cup were to instead fall off a table, the priority is to catch or at least pick up the cup rather than attempt to grab the water. Such a young mind may not be internally creating the laws of physics, but they are accepting their reality, which often leaves them susceptible to their circumstances
Humans take in an exorbitant amount of information throughout their lives, so it is understandable for certain concepts to get lost in translation. For example, if I were to show a baby a floating ball, it may not confuse them as much as it would an adult, even though the child may have accepted the idea of gravity. I see a similar behavior in my mother’s fourth grade students. They may understand what fractions are, but when asked to add two simple fractions, they confidently begin to cross multiply in an attempt to apply memorized information rather than visualizing the mathematical process. Another example is when my Algebra I teacher factored a polynomial wrong on the board and no one seemed to question him, either for lack of interest, because they were not paying attention, or because they were rather intent that it must make sense somehow.
As human beings, our minds are inherently trying to make sense of everything, but quickly we learn to apply what we remember instead of making and acting on assumptions. This may not be a simple algorithmic behavior, but because of it, the human race has developed the most immense and intricate “scope of reality.”
This is a very interesting observation you make within your blog about the natural abilities of humans and the impact that self-doubt or ignorance has on human beings. It is interesting how you mention that babies learn to accept the laws of physics through observation and experimentation, which really goes to show how curiosity fuels science and fulfillment in life, and that naturally, all humans are in some shape or form a scientist. Thank you always for your insightful ideas.
ReplyDeleteHello Nivedita, the topic of a young child’s mind relates to artificial intelligence, which I have been learning about in AP CSP. I believe that a baby’s mind is somewhat similar to a developing AI because it is through experimentation both the program and the child learns. I also learned that Artificial Intelligence algorithms use neural networks that mimic the human neurons to receive input and produce an output based on the previous information. How much do you think a baby's brain is similar to AI technology?
ReplyDeleteHi Nivedita, this is a very well thought-out blog that you have come up with, talking the relations between several different aspects of us. I think the most interesting part of your blog to me was when you brought into play babies instead of any other age group in this society. I feel like it gave it and extra insight to how we evolve as we all are a baby at some point and our mind certainly grows and evolves from what we have as a baby. I find it interesting that you brought into play intuition and talked about what happens to a child before they can take into consideration memories and the knowledge they have. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Nivedita! Your blogs are always so interesting and insightful. I must admit that I can greatly relate to the students in your math class who did not question the teacher for his mistake as they believed it must be correct. Our brains try to make sense of everything and find a reason behind every action and though it might prove advantageous, occasionally we might just be overthinking.
ReplyDeleteHello Nivedita! This blog is so astonishing and incredible. Your posts are full of wisdom and your writing never fails to amaze me because you are so wise and knowledgeable. You are a perfect example of humans having brilliant minds and powerful intuition. The experiments with infants are interesting to learn about, where they have no prior knowledge of the laws of physics, but use intuition to understand it.
ReplyDeleteHey Nivedita, your last point about how sometimes we fail to question things because we believe it must make sense somehow reminds me a lot of the political atmosphere these days. there are so many times where severe reaches will be made or completely far fetched conclusions are discerned, but if it comes from.a reputable or favorable source, we make the assumption that there must be some substance to it and avoid thinking for ourselves. This usually happens though when we are unaware about a topic, so maybe doing our own research on a controversial or tricky topic may help avoid harmful assumptions.
ReplyDeleteHi Nivedita, your blog reminded me of a test that psychologists use on young children to observe whether the children are in the preoperational stage of Piaget’s four stages of development. One of the aspects to the preoperational stage is egocentrism, meaning that children can only comprehend things from their point of view. When shown two different sides of a scene, and asked to describe the opposite side, children begin describing what is on their own side of the scene instead. Although they have seen the other side as well, they can only describe what is right in front of them, in their own point of view.
ReplyDeleteHi Nivedita! This is a keen observation you wrote about, and I now realize the difference in perception between age groups. Babies and Infants are surely more vulnerable to the characteristics of reality because they mainly focus on gaining a grasp of simple physics, like you mention. I find that so interesting, how they have no prior knowledge yet they continue to understand using basic intuition. Weirdly enough, I feel like we all are prey to making sense out of wrong things. Like the students in your Algebra 1 class, I feel there have been times when I simply agree with someone because I do not know what they are saying. Although this happens, I am getting better at questioning prior beliefs as I become more confident in my own knowledge.
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