{"id":8400,"date":"2019-05-22T16:07:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/mental_modules\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:07:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:07:18","slug":"mental_modules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/mental_modules\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental modules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relatively fixed, assumed to be innate, mental systems that have unique inputs and processes that operate on those inputs.  The claim for innateness probably stemmed from regarding mental modules as having evolved from natural selection pressures, a view evident in the evolutionary psychology<\/a> of the husband-wife partnership of Lea Cosmides<\/a> and John Tooby<\/a>.  The concept of modules is theoretical rather than anatomical, and as such there is no standard definition.  One of the earliest formulations of an explicit innate mental module was the Language Acquisition Device<\/a> proposed by Noam Chomsky<\/a> in his book Aspects of the theory of syntax<\/span> <\/a>(1965).  Subsequently, the notion of mental modules was applied by Howard Gardner<\/a> in delineating eight distinct forms of intelligence in his theory of multiple intelligences and mainly focused on education.  Perhaps the name most associated with mental modules and modularity more generally is Jerry Fodor<\/a>.  Based on sensation as having functional structures, Fodor theorized that there are modules for each of the senses, with what he called ‘mentation’ (something like ‘thought processes’) constituting one overarching module.  His theorizing has not gone without trenchant criticism<\/a> and debate.        <\/p>\n

See Innate (1)<\/a>, Innate modularity hypothesis<\/a>, Intelligence<\/a>, Mental image<\/a>, Modularity<\/a>, Theory of multiple intelligences<\/a><\/p>\n

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Relatively fixed, assumed to be innate, mental systems that have unique inputs and processes that operate on those inputs.  The claim for innateness probably stemmed from regarding mental modules as having evolved from natural selection pressures, a view evident in the evolutionary psychology of the husband-wife partnership of Lea Cosmides and John Tooby.  The concept of … <\/p>\n

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