Economic, neurobiological, and behavioral perspectives on building America's future workforce.

ABSTRACT: A growing proportion of the U.S. workforce will have been raised in disadvantaged environments that are associated with relatively high proportions of individuals with diminished cognitive and social skills. A cross-disciplinary examination of research in economics, developmental psychology, and neurobiology reveals a striking convergence on a set of common principles that account for the potent effects of early environment on the capacity for human skill development. Central to these principles are the findings that early experiences have a uniquely powerful influence on the development of cognitive and social skills and on brain architecture and neurochemistry, that both skill development and brain maturation are hierarchical processes in which higher level functions depend on, and build

SUBMITTER: Knudsen EI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1502427 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature