--- fabio guillermo rojas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "It's well documented that long term memory is nil for children less than five years of age (doctors call it "pediatric amnesia")...."
The Hippacampus isn't fully developed, and it's the organ of the brain responsible for transferring short term memories into long term memories. It is well documented that adults with hippacampal lesions cannot put memories into long term storage. The brain goes through alot of development and fine tuning up through adolescense, and the formative years are when all the major pathways are solidified. Additionally, it's also the time when all the unused neurons die; the only time more neurons die than in early childhood is at death. Still, it nevertheless seems odd to address the question to children's non-cooperation--Mr. Hanson's post notwithstanding. Cooperation as we think of it here in the west is not really a species wide phenomenon; i.e. it's probably not instictive. As I understand it, about 40% of adult male Yanomami have killed another person and about 25% of adult males will die from some form of violence. That's hardly the sort of peacful social cooperation that this string seems to assume. In some cultures it is considered kosher to hide in wait and actually hunt people. While I WOULD be interested to see how child cooperative behavior compares between modern societies and hunter-gatherer societies, as Mr. Hanson suggested, it still seems a bit unreasonable to suggest that adult cooperative behavior as we understand it is the standard against which the strangeness of child behavior should be guaged. Rather one should ask: 1. Is child social behavior more stereotyped across the species? And if so 2. Why does adult behavior develop the way it does in so many different forms? Or possibly 3. If child social behavior not stereotyped across the species, what accounts for the differences. Thanks for your time, jsh __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free http://sbc.yahoo.com
