PSYC 354 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Empiricism
17 Jan 2019
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Newspaper analogy - like checking another newspaper to verify whether this newspaper is right or not. Tells us that we learn by copying what we see/hear in the environment. The empiricist view would tell us that a kid sees other people call certain animals dogs , so the child now knows that those animals are called dogs . Interestingly, the child uses its understanding of the world in a new way. E. g. calling a new animal that it sees a dog . The kid will interpret the world using the knowledge it has. Real life example: ophelia learned to wave, and would then wave in different contexts to communicate meanings. I. e. waving when finished meal to indicate she"s done eating. Empiricism is lacking as a theory because it cannot explain how kids will use the knowledge they acquire in new ways.
