الخاتم عدلان: آن آوان الماركسية ... بقلم: د. عبد الله علي إبراهيم

Quote: Categories can also be formed visually for more abstract concepts such as good and bad. My family taught me about good and bad behavior in a very concrete manner. Breaking a window would be bad behavior for which I would be punished and helping with the housework or cleaning up my room was good behavior. As I acquired many life experiences I could catalogue the specific experiences into different categories. Good and bad are not abstract concepts. They are like pigeon holes in a post office where the pictures of good and bad events could be catalogued. The concepts of good and bad were only understood when I had many specific images of good and bad experiences to look at. Then I can look for common features which make good and bad fall into visually understandable categories. Bad behavior hurts other people or their property. Bad behavior such as teasing can also hurt another person's feelings. When kids teased me, I cried. When I think about these events I see pictures in my imagination like videos. The pictures can then be sorted. I am able to form concepts and make generalizations with visual pictures. Animals are also able to do this. For example, a guide dog for the blind has to be able to recognize an intersection in a strange city. Guide dog trainers teach the dog to generalize intersections by training the dog on many different types of interactions. If the dog was trained only on intersections with traffic lights, it may not know what to do at an intersection with no lights. Low functioning non-verbal people with autism have the same problem with generalizing. If the nonverbal person with autism is taught only at home to not run across the street, he or she will obey the rule at home but not at grandma's house. To generalize the non-verbal person with autism has to be taught not to run across the street at many different places.