The scaffolded mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world

It has long been a staple of psychological theory that early life experiences significantly shape the adult's understanding of and reactions to the social world. Here, we consider how early concept development along with evolved motives operating early in life can come to exert a passive, unconscious influence on the human adult's higher-order goal pursuits, judgments, and actions. In particular; we focus on concepts and goal structures specialized for interacting with the physical environment (e.g., distance cites, temperature, cleanliness, and self-protection), which emerge early and automatically as a natural part of human development and evolution. It is proposed that via the process of scaffolding, these early sensorimotor experiences serve as the foundation for the later development of more abstract concepts and goals. Experiments using priming methodologies reveal the extent to which these earl), concepts serve as the analogical basis for more abstract psychological concepts, such that we come easily and naturally to speak of close relationships, warm personalities, moral purity, and psychological pain. Taken together; this research demonstrates the e extent to which such foundational concepts art, capable of influencing people's information processing, affective judgements, and goal pursuit, oftentimes outside of their intention or awareness. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.