Adaptive Nature of the Mind

 In my last post on Contextual Learning, I discussed the learning which happens when a person is exposed to a different environment in his lifetime, and how that fills up his life canvas with different learnings. Today let me sneak-peek on learning as a process of evolution. As a species, humans have learnt various behaviours during the evolution process. For example, have you ever thought why a red cross is used to represent medical professional organisations, hospitals, clinics? It is because red is a colour representing danger. 

Reaction Time to Colour Red

We are aware, that signs and symbols convey meaning, and that is how they are created and designed. Did human beings all of a sudden, one fine day, decide to have a red cross as a sign for the hospital? Well no. The story behind the symbol is very much a part of the evolution process. When the pre-historic man went hunting, he realised that there was blood during an injury or when prey was killed. Blood, being red was taken as a sign of danger. It got slowly and steadily imbibed in our psyche.

Science suggests, that human eye sees red when it looks at the light with a wavelength between approximately 625 and 740 nanometers. It is a primary colour in the RGB model and the light just past this range is called infrared, or below red, and cannot be seen by human eyes, although it can be sensed as heat. Sensitivity to red developed gradually when our ancestors had to, again as a part of survival instinct, distinguish between a ripe fruit from that which was unripe. 

This adaptive nature of learning is related to the reinforcement theory. Behaviours that get reinforced positively are repeated and strengthened, and those negatively are diminished and eventually die out. 

Adaptive Learning

Human bodies too, have adapted to the present times. Our ancestors walked stooping forward, had curved backs, had huge, rugged bodies, and climbed trees, but humans today walk erect, have adapted their body to suit the environment they live in, we no longer climb trees (rather we do not require to). So in the same way, our mind too has adapted, our knowledge about our environment has grown many folds.

If you have heard many of the older generation talking, ‘Children nowadays are so smart, they have come all prepared to this world from their mother’s womb already, they know much more than we knew at our times.’ This amateur and very casual statement have very scientific meaning. It simply means that evolution has prepared our brains to become cleverer, quicker, creative, imaginative, and so much more ready to face the world we live in today.

Don’t you agree?