Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Lifespan Development and the Brain
- PART ONE SETTING THE STAGE ACROSS THE AGES OF THE LIFESPAN
- PART TWO NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: MICROSTRUCTURE MEETS THE EXPERIENTIAL ENVIRONMENT
- PART THREE NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: ATYPICAL BRAIN ARCHITECTURES
- PART FOUR BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS AND DOMAINS
- PART FIVE PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION IN LATER LIFE
- PART SIX BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: FROM MICRO- TO MACROENVIRONMENTS IN LARGER CULTURAL CONTEXTS
- 13 Characteristics of Illiterate and Literate Cognitive Processing: Implications of Brain–Behavior Co-Constructivism
- 14 The Influence of Work and Occupation on Brain Development
- 15 The Influence of Organized Violence and Terror on Brain and Mind: A Co-Constructive Perspective
- 16 Co-Constructing Human Engineering Technologies in Old Age: Lifespan Psychology as a Conceptual Foundation
- PART SEVEN EPILOGUE
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
13 - Characteristics of Illiterate and Literate Cognitive Processing: Implications of Brain–Behavior Co-Constructivism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Lifespan Development and the Brain
- PART ONE SETTING THE STAGE ACROSS THE AGES OF THE LIFESPAN
- PART TWO NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: MICROSTRUCTURE MEETS THE EXPERIENTIAL ENVIRONMENT
- PART THREE NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: ATYPICAL BRAIN ARCHITECTURES
- PART FOUR BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS AND DOMAINS
- PART FIVE PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION IN LATER LIFE
- PART SIX BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: FROM MICRO- TO MACROENVIRONMENTS IN LARGER CULTURAL CONTEXTS
- 13 Characteristics of Illiterate and Literate Cognitive Processing: Implications of Brain–Behavior Co-Constructivism
- 14 The Influence of Work and Occupation on Brain Development
- 15 The Influence of Organized Violence and Terror on Brain and Mind: A Co-Constructive Perspective
- 16 Co-Constructing Human Engineering Technologies in Old Age: Lifespan Psychology as a Conceptual Foundation
- PART SEVEN EPILOGUE
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
ABSTRACT
Literacy and education represent essential aspects of contemporary society, and subserve important aspects of socialization and cultural transmission. The study of illiterate subjects represents one approach to investigating the interactions between neurobiological and cultural factors in cognitive development, individual learning, and their influence on the functional organization of the brain. In this chapter, we review some recent cognitive, neuroanatomic, and functional neuroimaging results indicating that formal education influences important aspects of the human brain. Taken together, this provides strong support for the idea that the brain is modulated by literacy and formal education, which in turn change the brain's capacity to interact with its environment, including the individual's contemporary culture. In other words, the individual is able to participate in, interact with, and actively contribute to the process of cultural transmission in new ways through acquired cognitive skills.
INTRODUCTION
Education plays an essential role in contemporary society. Acquiring reading and writing skills, as well as other cognitive skills, during formal education can be viewed as a structured process of cultural transmission. Formal education and the educational system represent essential aspects of modern society and are cardinal structures of the intelligent information environment. These institutionalized structures subserve important aspects of socialization and cultural transmission. The study of illiterate subjects and matched literate controls provides an opportunity to investigate the interaction between neurobiological and cultural factors in cognitive development and learning.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lifespan Development and the BrainThe Perspective of Biocultural Co-Constructivism, pp. 279 - 305Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
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