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Article 1426 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Animal Intelligence vs Human Intelligence
Message-ID: <38079@shamash.cdc.com>
Date: 20 Nov 91 01:40:36 GMT
References: <37995@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov15.235744.25719@en.ecn.purdue.edu> <38039@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov19.000813.26477@spss.com>
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Reply-To: map@svl.cdc.com
Organization: Control Data Corporation, Silicon Valley Operations
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In <1991Nov19.000813.26477@spss.com> markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:

>In article <38039@shamash.cdc.com> map@svl.cdc.com writes:
>>In the first few (x <= 3 ?) years of life, an infant is bombarded by a vast 
>>number of sensations, and its brain "learns" to recognize entities from this.
>>This "learning" happens without conscious intervention on the part of the
>>infant, and yields awareness of entities, i.e., of distinct objects with
>>definite shapes, sizes, and other attributes.

>                                     What evidence do you have that an
>infant's learning does not involve consciousness?  Infants learn by active
>exploration of their environment.  Deprive an infant (or a baby animal) of
>the opportunity to explore or experiment and it won't learn to function
>properly.  

But I didn't say that an infant's learning "... does not involve
consciousness," I said that its *brain* learns to perceive entities
thru exposure to a vast number of sensations.  This is akin to
what happens to an adult when he is fitted with special glasses
which invert the image striking each retina.  At first, the adult
is disoriented because he perceives the world as being "upside down,"
but after a while, his brain adjusts, and once again the adult perceives
the world as "right side up," an adjustment that happens without 
"conscious intervention" by the adult.

Of *course* infants learn via exploration and experimentation, but this
is not what I'm talking about.  What you are talking about is an
infant who has already reached the perceptual level, i.e., who's
brain has already "learned" to recognize entities.  I don't know the   
exact age at which an infant reaches the perceptual level, nor the
exact age at which it first enters the conceptual realm - all I 
know is that these happen sometime before the age of three.
--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Corporation                    ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==


