EspañolPortuguês
"Understanding the Brain", The Birth of a Learning Science, 2007, page 113
Are There Critical Periods to Learning? (2)
In Learning: The Birds Have Critical Periods, The Man Has Sensitive Periods
In Learning: The Birds Have Critical Periods, The Man Has Sensitive Periods
The concept of "Critical Period" dates back to experiments conducted in the 1970s by the ethologist Konrad Lorenz which are relatively well-known by the general public.
He observed that fedglings on hatching became permanently attached to the prominent mobile object of the environment, usually their mother, which attachment Lorenz named as “Imprinting”. By taking the place of the mother, Lorenz managed to become attached to fledglings which followed him everywhere. The period that allows this attachment is very short (right after hatching); once in place, it was impossible to change the attachment object and the fledglings permanently followed the substitute instead of their mother. The term “Critical Period” is appropriate for such a case as an event (or its absence) during a specific period brings about an irreversible situation.
The acquisition of skills results from training and the strengthening of certain connections, but also from pruning certain others. There is a distinction that needs to be drawn between two types of synaptogenesis – the one that occurs naturally early in life and the other resulting from exposure to complex environments throughout the lifespan. Researchers refer to the first as “Experience-Expectant Learning” and to the second as “Experience-Dependent Learning”.
Grammar is learned faster and easier up to approximately age 16, while the capacity to enrich vocabulary actually improves throughout the lifespan (Neville, 2000).
Grammar gives an example of sensitive-period learning and is experience-expectant: for learning to be done without excessive difficulty, it must ideally take place in a given lapse of time (the sensitive period). Experience-Expectant Learning is thus optimal during certain periods of life.
Learning that does not depend on a sensitive period, such as the acquisition of vocabulary, is “Experience-Dependent”: when the learning best takes place is not constrained by age or time and this type of learning can even improve as the years go by.
Are there “Critical Periods” as unique phases during which certain types of learning can only successfully take place? Can certain skills or even knowledge only be acquired during relatively short “windows of opportunity” which then close once-and-for-all at a precise stage of brain development?
He observed that fedglings on hatching became permanently attached to the prominent mobile object of the environment, usually their mother, which attachment Lorenz named as “Imprinting”. By taking the place of the mother, Lorenz managed to become attached to fledglings which followed him everywhere. The period that allows this attachment is very short (right after hatching); once in place, it was impossible to change the attachment object and the fledglings permanently followed the substitute instead of their mother. The term “Critical Period” is appropriate for such a case as an event (or its absence) during a specific period brings about an irreversible situation.
The acquisition of skills results from training and the strengthening of certain connections, but also from pruning certain others. There is a distinction that needs to be drawn between two types of synaptogenesis – the one that occurs naturally early in life and the other resulting from exposure to complex environments throughout the lifespan. Researchers refer to the first as “Experience-Expectant Learning” and to the second as “Experience-Dependent Learning”.Grammar is learned faster and easier up to approximately age 16, while the capacity to enrich vocabulary actually improves throughout the lifespan (Neville, 2000).
Grammar gives an example of sensitive-period learning and is experience-expectant: for learning to be done without excessive difficulty, it must ideally take place in a given lapse of time (the sensitive period). Experience-Expectant Learning is thus optimal during certain periods of life.
Learning that does not depend on a sensitive period, such as the acquisition of vocabulary, is “Experience-Dependent”: when the learning best takes place is not constrained by age or time and this type of learning can even improve as the years go by.Are there “Critical Periods” as unique phases during which certain types of learning can only successfully take place? Can certain skills or even knowledge only be acquired during relatively short “windows of opportunity” which then close once-and-for-all at a precise stage of brain development?
"Understanding the Brain", The Birth of a Learning Science, 2007, page 113
