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problems facing learners in many domains, especially language. In addition, domain-specific accounts draw support from the surprising competencies of infants, who are able to reason about things like numerosity, goal-directed behavior, and the physical properties of objects all in the first months
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designed to overcome persistent problems in the environment. For humans, popular candidates include reasoning about objects, other intentional agents, language, and number. Researchers in this field seek evidence for domain specificity in a variety of ways. Some look for unique cognitive
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signatures thought to characterize a domain (e.g. differences in ways infants reason about inanimate versus animate entities). Others try to show selective impairment or competence within but not across domains (e.g. the increased ease of solving the
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when the content is social in nature). Still, others use learnability arguments to argue that a cognitive process or specific cognitive content could not be learned, as in
184:, especially over such a short time and in the face of the infant’s perceptual, attentional, and motor deficits. Current proponents of domain specificity argue that
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theories that believed all learning can be driven by the operation of a few such general learning devices. Prominent examples of such domain-general views include
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are supported by specialized, presumably evolutionarily specified, learning devices. The position is a close relative of
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Spelke, Elizabeth S., and
Katherine D. Kinzler. "Core knowledge." Developmental science 10.1 (2007): 89-96.
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modularity (e.g., informational encapsulation). Instead, it is properly described as a variant of
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Domain-specificity vs. domain-generality in evolutionary developmental psychology
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equipped humans (and indeed most other species) with specific
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Mapping the Mind: Domain
Specificity in Cognition and Culture
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Neural processing for individual categories of objects
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1466:Sociobiology
1324:Neuroscience
1304:Intelligence
850:Anthropology
803:Color vision
788:Multitasking
767:Flynn effect
762:Intelligence
744:Folk biology
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487:Evolutionary
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360:Susan Gelman
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49:Please help
44:verification
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1605:Determinism
1517:Coevolution
1461:Primatology
1299:Gender role
1204:Orientation
1084:Screen time
941:Affectional
923:Development
602:Mate choice
529:By-products
497:Adaptations
460:Cognitivism
322:Susan Carey
210:Jerry Fodor
190:adaptations
169:Jean Piaget
1552:Population
1547:Lamarckism
1393:behavioral
1371:Behavioral
1319:Narcissism
1264:Aggression
1054:Hypophobia
1044:Depression
931:Attachment
913:Universals
877:Psychology
855:Biological
843:Musicology
833:Aesthetics
732:Basophobia
539:Exaptation
517:Reciprocal
249:Empiricism
165:empiricist
107:April 2011
77:newspapers
1397:cognitive
1389:Affective
1274:Cognition
1228:Sexuality
1214:Pair bond
974:Education
631:Cognition
549:Inclusive
489:processes
477:Criticism
382:Abstracts
186:evolution
142:cognition
1764:Category
1666:Memetics
1426:Ethology
1384:genetics
1219:Physical
1184:Jealousy
1139:Activity
945:maternal
901:Religion
889:Morality
867:Language
748:taxonomy
561:Mismatch
507:Cheating
502:Altruism
363:Archived
344:Archived
325:Archived
306:Archived
232:See also
150:Fodorian
1567:Species
1339:Suicide
1174:Fantasy
1154:Arousal
936:Bonding
825:Culture
649:Display
636:Emotion
544:Fitness
433:History
91:scholar
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1269:Autism
1236:female
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906:Origin
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793:Sleep
783:skill
623:Areas
281:Notes
98:JSTOR
84:books
1232:male
593:Male
70:news
1131:Sex
808:Eye
201:’s
53:by
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