The scaffolded mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in earlyexperience of the physical world

摘要

It has long been a staple of psychological theory that early life experiences significantly shape the adult's understanding ofand reactions to the social world. Here we consider how early concept development along with evolved motives operatingearly in life can come to exert a passive, unconscious influence on the human adult's higher-order goal pursuits,judgments, and actions. In particular, we focus on concepts and goal structures specialized for interacting with thephysical environment (e.g., distance cues, temperature, cleanliness, and self-protection), which emerge early andautomatically as a natural part of human development and evolution. It is proposed that via the process of scaffolding,these early sensorimotor experiences serve as the foundation for the later development of more abstract concepts andgoals. Experiments using priming methodologies reveal the extent to which these early concepts serve as the analogicalbasis for more abstract psychological concepts, such that we come easily and naturally to speak of close relationships,warm personalities, moral purity, and psychological pain. Taken together, this research demonstrates the extent to whichsuch foundational concepts are capable of influencing people's information processing, affective judgments, and goalpursuit, oftentimes outside of their intention or awareness.