This paper intends to introduce the topic by first highlighting the problem question then stating the position that the paper intends to shade more light on and finally elaborating the question in detail by supporting the same using empirical and rigorous scientific research. The question required to be addressed by this paper is whether nature, nurture or both interact to shape the cognitive development in children. The position that this paper takes is that both nature and nurture interact to shape children’s cognitive development and seeks to support the same position relying on studies by the modern scientists on the development of the brain of a child, Piaget study on assimilation and accommodation, supported by laboratory experiments by Holger Hyden and the Theory by Pavlovand his subsequent experiment.
Nature and Nurture interact in the early stages of development before a child is even born. This interaction of Nature and Nurture can be demonstrated by the fact that a child as soon as he or she is born would prefer, react and respond to the mother’s voice even if he or she is not in a position to see the mother. Nurture plays a critical role in this particular kind of cognitive development. When the foetus repeatedly hears the voice of the mother, the voice becomes familiar to the voice of the mother, learns the voice and prefers the voice of the mum to that of the dad and other people. Nature also contributes to that very process in the various ways. For instance, genes plays the role of timing the neural development to allow the foetus learn the mum’s development. Initially it was thought that genes are the only contributing factors to the brain development of a child. With the modern technology a number of scientists have been able to take pictures of brain activity and compare them. The findings by these scientists was uniform that the development of the brain of a child was rapid and more especially during the first three years. Pavlov’s theory on conditional reflexes, as shall be elaborately discussed later in this paper, also supports the ability of the child to learn and respond to the voice of the mother.
The fact that a child`s behaviour changes when he or she grows also change points to the fact that nature and nurture interact to shape the cognitive development of Children. Piaget studied assimilation and accommodation of human beings, his study involved how human beings perceived and responded to new information described. Piaget assimilation as to the process that a person undergoes when he or she is faced with unfamiliar information and would look at the new information in relation to what he or she had previously learnt in order to try to demystify the new information. He further described Accommodation as the process of taking in new information in a context and modifying pre-existing information about the same to accept the new information in a fashion that they all make sense. Piaget developed some tests to try and explain that this interaction of nature and nurture was caused by concentration of RNA molecules. As such, it can be argued that he did not reach a conclusion. However, later works of Holger Hyden proved that indeed the concentration of RNA molecules was involved in the process of learning. In his experiments in the laboratory, Hyden observed the newly synthesized RNA molecule had a nucleotide structure that was particular. He further observed that there were changes that took place in the synthesis of the subject RNA molecules during the process of learning. He noted that these changes were not just as a result of brain activation. This processes primarily describes how children develop as they grow up and explains how the change of behaviour results. Every new information that a child is faced with is mainly as a result of nurture and nature comes into play by allowing the child to cognize and/or recognize any information that he or she is faced with in the cause of development.
Pavlov’s theory of conditional reflexes also support the position that nature and nurture interact to shape the cognitive development in children. Pavlov theory on conditional reflexes states to the effect that human beings and animals learn from the environment and adapt to the conditions. Pavlov conducted his experiment which involved dogs. In his experiment, Pavlov used to ring a bell right before he gave his dogs some food. So every time before he fed the dogs, he used to ring the bell and he dogs would start salivating in anticipation of the food. After doing so repeatedly for a number of days, it became obvious for the dogs that the ringing bell signified feeding time had reached and so they started salivating whenever he rang the bell even when there was no food at all. His conclusion was that the brain adapts to the conditions of the environment and learns new phenomena. Pavlov’s theory and subsequent experiment further proves that both nature and nurture interact to shape the cognitive development of children. The dogs were nurtured to cognize that when the bell rang, it was time to feed. Similarly, when children are nurtured in a particular way or to do particular things at particular times, nature kicks in to aid in the assimilation and accommodation of the information and the responses thereof.
In Conclusion, studies by the modern scientists on the development of the brain of a child, Piaget study on assimilation and accommodation, supported by laboratory experiments by Holger Hyden and the Theory by Pavlov and his subsequent experiment all point to and support the position taken by this submission that both nature and nurture interact to shape the cognitive development in children.
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