Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/16148
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Type: Journal article
Title: Nativism and neuroconstructivism in the explanation of Williams syndrome
Author: Gerrans, P.
Citation: Biology and Philosophy, 2003; 18(1):41-52
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publ
Issue Date: 2003
ISSN: 0169-3867
1572-8404
Statement of
Responsibility: 
P. Gerrans
Abstract: Nativists about syntactic processing have argued that linguistic processing, understood as the implementation of a rule-based computational architecture, is spared in Williams syndrome, (WMS) subjects – and hence that it provides evidence for a genetically specified language module. This argument is bolstered by treating Specific Language Impairments (SLI) and WMS as a developmental double dissociation which identifies a syntax module. Neuroconstructivists have argued that the cognitive deficits of a developmental disorder cannot be adequately distinguished using the standard gross behavioural tests of neuropsychology and that the linguistic abilities of the WMS subject can be equally well explained by a constructivist strategy of neural learning in the individual, with linguisitic functions implemented in an associationist architecture. The neuroconstructivist interpretation of WMS undermines the hypothesis of a double dissociation between SLI and WMS, leaving unresolved the question of nativism about syntax. The apparent linguistic virtuosity of WMS subjects is an artefact of enhanced phonological processing, a fact which is easier to demonstrate via the associationist computational model embraced by neuroconstructivism.
Keywords: Nativism
neuroconstructivism
Williams syndrome
specific language impairment
Description: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com
DOI: 10.1023/A:1023396800448
Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1023396800448
Appears in Collections:Aurora harvest 2
Philosophy publications

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