Reporter Psych Explained

(Two posts in one day; can you tell it's a slow day at my office job?)

Today in Developmental Psych, we discussed the cognitive development of infants.  The prof told us how infants use different schemas to begin to use their minds to understand the world around them.  At some point, these schema evolve to Association.  Think of associations as cookie-cutters (or in adult terms, stereotypes).

The example the prof gave was that a child sees a dog and makes an association: walks on four legs, has a head, has a tail=dog.  Later, the child sees a horse, a cow, or a deer.  In the child's mind, this is also a dog because it fits the criteria: walks on four legs, has a head, has a tail. The child explicitly states: "Dog!".  If an adult tries to change the child's mind, the child balks because it's association is challenged. 
"That's a boy cow.  See the horns?"
"NO, DOG!" *covers ears, sometimes literally*
Later, children learn Accommodation.  This is where they learn to tweak what they have perceived as real/true so that it fits with the real world.  Back to the prof's example: if it walks on four legs, has a head, has a tail, barks=dog.  This reasoning continues throughout the child's life, beyond infancy and well into adulthood.  Well, for most adults that is.  Some just never get past the Association stage, resulting in sad-but-true things like this:

This image actually ran through my head during class, thus proving that no matter what Gal may say, I'm still the truly strange one in the relationship.

-Guy