{"id":207837,"date":"2020-06-10T12:25:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T16:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/?p=207837"},"modified":"2020-06-10T12:25:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T16:25:45","slug":"a-close-look-at-nature-vs-nurture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/2020\/06\/10\/a-close-look-at-nature-vs-nurture\/","title":{"rendered":"A Close Look at Nature vs. Nurture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever been around a crying infant, you may have concluded that the world of a newborn is one great \u2018blooming, buzzing confusion\u2019 \u2026\u201d So begins the lecture \u2013 and the nature vs. nurture debate \u2013 presented by this academic year\u2019s University Distinguished Scholar, Psychology Professor Laura Lakusta.<\/p>\n<p>For the past 15 years, Lakusta has focused on language and cognitive development, and most recently leadership, in research within one of oldest philosophical fields of psychology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs the world of a newborn really a big \u2018booming, buzzing confusion\u2019?\u201d she asks referencing theorist William James. \u201cOr do infants initially, and that is from birth, bring a rich knowledge base which may serve as a foundation and support subsequent learning?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In her lecture to the University community \u2013 presented virtually due to the state\u2019s stay-at-home orders \u2013 \u00a0Lakusta explores the timeless theme while sharing her own extensive studies on inherited traits and learned behaviors. Research makes it increasingly clear that both nature <em>and<\/em> nurture play a role, she says.<\/p>\n<p>The University\u2019s Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes 精品成人福利在线 faculty who have developed a distinguished record of scholarly or creative achievement, says University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Willard Gingerich. \u201cThis award provided Laura with enhanced opportunities to implement two active, competitive research programs and the opportunity to share with the campus community her work exploring the domains of language and cognitive development, and a new line of research that explores the impact of nature and nurture in leadership development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Lakusta explains in the presentation, \u201cNature and Nurture in Spatial Cognition and Beyond,\u201d the nature and nurture theme is by no means solely of interest to the field of psychology, \u201cbut one that applies to a range of disciplines, including philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, education, biology, genetics, et cetera, et cetera.\u201d<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/montclair.hosted.panopto.com\/Panopto\/Pages\/Embed.aspx?v=1&amp;id=341f9655-cb15-43dc-b5e7-abba01290651\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" title=\"Nature and Nurture in Spatial Cognition and Beyond, Laura Lakusta\" style=\"border: none;\"><\/iframe>\n<p>\u201cThe field is in agreement that it\u2019s not an either\/or question. It\u2019s not, is it nature or is it nurture that contributes to development. But the question is how do they contribute? How can we understand how nature and nurture work together to drive development forward?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lakusta has published repeatedly \u2013 often with her students \u2013 in some of the most competitive journals in cognitive and developmental psychology, including the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,<\/em> and since 2008 she has presented more than 50 invited papers and conference posters.<\/p>\n<p>The studies of language and cognition \u2013 which have been supported with two different grants totaling about $900,000 from the National Science Foundation \u2013 test whether and how representations of spatial knowledge in children 6 months to 5 years can be influenced by environmental input. A portion of this work is a collaborative project with Barbara Landau, professor of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n<p>The main finding is that infants\u2019 representations of events can support language learning. In the lab setting, for example, the researchers look at how infants and children interpret the world around them, and think about objects and actions. As explained in the lecture, this includes simple events, such as a duck moving out of a bowl or a leaf blowing into a box.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may be surprised at how much infants actually do seem to know within just a few months of life or even just a year,\u201d Lakusta says.<\/p>\n<p>A new study of leadership development, in collaboration with 精品成人福利在线 Psychology Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/profilepages\/view_profile.php?username=braggerj\">Jennifer Bragger<\/a>, explores the broad questions of whether children are predisposed to develop into certain types of leaders and how environmental context may influence leadership development. Specifically, Lakusta and Bragger are testing how children, adolescents and adults perceive the distinctions between different leadership types, and whether Theory of Mind development, humility and self-awareness play a role in leadership emergence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re looking at how people become servant leaders,\u201d Lakusta says. \u201cThese are leaders that primarily lead by focusing on their followers. They lead by empowering their followers by guiding, by developing their followers. By doing this, by focusing on their followers, they\u2019re actually able to attain goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The research takes place in 精品成人福利在线\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/msudevlab.com\/\">Cognitive and Language Development Lab<\/a>, where Lakusta leads teams of student researchers. The lab is among the University\u2019s clinical labs in psychology that have received grant funding for research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe students really made it happen,\u201d Lakusta says. \u201cThey do everything from reading and presenting empirical and theoretical research to coding and analyzing and interpreting data to assisting me with participant testing. They go out into the community on a Sunday afternoon to help recruit children at community fairs. They assist with IRB (Institutional Review Board). The research would not be possible without them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Story by Staff Writer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/profilepages\/view_profile.php?username=lehrenma\">Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychology Professor shares her research for University\u2019s Distinguished Scholar lecture <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":207838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7_homepage-news-and-events","category-268_psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207839,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207837\/revisions\/207839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}