How do brains build minds? This article presents the idea of "neural constructivism," where the representational features of cortex are constructed from dynamic interaction between neural growth mechanisms and environmentally derived neural activity. The interaction between the environment and neural growth results in constructive learning, minimizing the need for prespecification. Instead, the representational properties of cortex are built by the nature of the problem domain confronting it. Neural constructivism undermines learnability theory, and suggests that the evolutionary emergence of neocortex in mammals is a progression toward more flexible representational structures. The human cortical postnatal development is also more extensive and protracted than generally supposed, suggesting that cortex has evolved so as to maximize the capacity of environmental structure. This manifesto challenges traditional selectionist models and offers new direction. The paper will be very useful for the future of educational science.
Published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, this article contributes to the journal's interdisciplinary exploration of the mind and brain. By presenting neural constructivism as a framework for understanding cognitive development, it aligns with the journal's focus on bridging behavioral and neuroscientific perspectives.