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OpenMind5

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Hey Everyone,

 

Topic: The mind of Babies

Question: Have you every wondered why you can't remeber the day you were born?

 

Were you come in- Whats the story here?

 

*Trust me...i'm going somwhere with this one*

 

Review- in case u don't get what i want... why can't we remeber the day we were born or details of when we were 1 month old...ect...

 

 

OP5

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Some people claim to remember events in former lives, I quess that would qualify as before birth, wouldn't it. Personally I don't have much faith in such spectulation. However, I will admit that there are many possibilities even though they may sound completely unlikely.

 

This is kind of what i was leading up to. The idea of the devloping mind, and the idea of past lives...i don't know how to bets decribe it...

 

Seems like i need to do some research here...

In develpoing of the mind...motor skills come first i'm assuming. LIke who many people remeber saying their first word? If is possible to go through part of your life not remebering what happened....why not past lives? (And i must say that i don't beilve in reincarnation ether) just the idea of being able to live somwhere else and have no idea about it...maybe that has somthing to do with the large mass of the brain we DON'T use...

LOL ~random thoughts~

 

TTYL

OP5

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There was a fantastic program on the science channel that detailed the developing mind, including a specific mention of the child's understanding and perception of self and reality that he/she is a part of. I'd suggest looking into that, I'll try to find a corresponding website as well.

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maybe that has somthing to do with the large mass of the brain we DON'T use...

This is has been discussed before but I was unable to find the thread. That we do not use all of our brain is a myth.

 

http://www.csicop.org/si/9903/ten-percent-myth.html

That tired Ten-Percent claim pops up all the time. Last year, national magazine ads for U.S. Satellite Broadcasting showed a drawing of a brain. Under it was the caption, "You only use 11 percent of its potential." Well, they're a little closer than the ten-percent figure, but still off by about 89 percent. In July 1998, ABC television ran promotional spots for "The Secret Lives of Men," one of their offerings for the fall season's lineup. The spot featured a full-screen blurb that read, "Men only use ten percent of their brains."
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When you are born, you are born with 5 senses usually. you have Basic instructions from you're Genes. As you experience the world around you, you're brain is rapidly trying to make sense of the world and the surroundings it is in. You're brain is making so many Connections at this time in you're life that. the first few years are when you are not exactly conscious.

 

So rather the reason you dont remember things is because you havnt yet making sense of you're surroundings that well. Once you're brain has enough understanding and Intelligence you develop a greater consciousness. This continues and progresses to being Fully conscious bein eventually.

 

You're brain didnt really have any sense of the world for you to record any meaningful memories at the time.

 

A brain and 5 Senses = input = understanding/intelligence = consciousness

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One of the theories in sociology involve the development of the human mind with respect to cognition and the way that we perceive the world.

 

Piaget established four stages of cognitive development

  1. Sensory Motor Stage (Birth-2) - Development using only senses and muscle movement
  2. Preoperational Stage (2-7) - Language development, You begin learning with symbols, and do not yet understand conservation of mass.
  3. Concrete Operations (7-11) - Logical and now capable of concrete thinking, understand conservation.
  4. Formal Operations (11-Adult) - Capable of abstract thinking.

 

Obviously this does not follow the the thinking development of all people, but for the lesser of our population I believe it makes perfect of sense.

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I don't know the real reason for why you can't remember the very beginnings of life, but I always assumed it was that simply the same reason you don't remember what you had for lunch 43 days ago. But since you were born that day, the long term memory won't funtion as well as it does now either. I think it was a memory for awhile, but that time was so long ago (percentage-wise) that you don't even remember that you remembered it.

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One of the theories in sociology involve the development of the human mind with respect to cognition and the way that we perceive the world.

 

Piaget established four stages of cognitive development...

 

AsaTaiyo,

WELCOME! Thanks for joining, and for POSTING!!

How weird though. I was just re-reading this exact same info on Monday, for a developmental psych class... Piaget was actually pretty much on the money, afaik. i haven't seen/read anything that contradicts the developmental stages that you list, and i've done a LOT of studying about this.

 

as for your question, OP5... at birth, your brain is not fully developed. That is the answer to your question, in a nutshell. If you want the technicals of it, I can get those for you, but basically, it's just that.

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You're brain didnt really have any sense of the world for you to record any meaningful memories at the time.

Thanks Whoa, that was what I was going to try and get across. In order to "remember" something, the "memory" would have to make sense.

 

Let's say it is possible to "remember" our birth and things immediatelly surrounding it. What we would then recall would be the massive "confussion", the total lack of understanding of what is happening around us. e.g. I have a strong memory which seemed to be from my very early childhood. I recall a large buring orange eye and it has a slightly painful feeling attached to it. In reviewing it with my mother some time ago she was able to recall an event which would perfectly explain it. Around 8 months I was crawling around the floor. I crawled up to one of those old space heaters with a center cone shaped heater element in a dish. She recalled slapping my hand when I reached for it. It scared her enough to register a memory for her. Obviously myself also. But while she had the ability to comprehend the event, I was just logging sensations that I could not comprehend enough to establish a "rational" memory from.

 

Perhaps we DO remember our birth, but what we recall of the event is not structured in a way our mature mind can translate.

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When you are born, you are born with 5 senses usually. you have Basic instructions from you're Genes. As you experience the world around you, you're brain is rapidly trying to make sense of the world and the surroundings it is in. You're brain is making so many Connections at this time in you're life that. the first few years are when you are not exactly conscious.

 

So rather the reason you dont remember things is because you havnt yet making sense of you're surroundings that well. Once you're brain has enough understanding and Intelligence you develop a greater consciousness. This continues and progresses to being Fully conscious bein eventually.

 

Julian Janes has interesting perspectives on consciousness. This is an review of his interesting book The origin of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind. He is quite convincing.

http://members.aol.com/chris5264/jaynes.html

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