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Well I won't be linking that anymore. Anyways, I was really more interested in the little narrative observation above than the numerical results of the study.
by platz 12y ago
Well I won't be linking that anymore. Anyways, I was really more interested in the little narrative observation above than the numerical results of the study.
- sukilot 12y agoBut the data showed that the narrative was bullshit. (Catch-22: believing the narrative puts you in the narrative's non-logical bucket)
- sukilot 12y agoBut the data showed that the narrative was bullshit. (Catch-22: believing the narrative puts you in the narrative's non-logical bucket)
- mannykannot 12y agoThe quote reminded me of a study I read about a year ago, in which the problem-solving skills of toddlers and chimps were compared. The toddlers generally did better, except in one regard: when shown how to do something, but with some pretty obviously irrelevant steps included, the chimps were quicker and more likely to drop the pointless steps. At the time, I thought that might be explained by a human predisposition to pay attention to authority, but, in the light of that quote, perhaps it is (also) a predisposition to formal / abstract thinking? Furthermore (to make a wild speculative leap) perhaps it is this predisposition that is actually behind the phenomena that Chomsky thinks are evidence for an innate universal grammar?