In: Psychology
So if you took a baby from a non-literate culture and raised it in a literate culture, would the baby progress at the same rate as those in the literate culture?
Our behaviours, emotions and actions are shaped by the environment in which we live. Infants and young children are keenly responsive to what they can learn from the actions and words directed to them by other people. It does not matter which background the baby belongs to.
In the words of J.B Watson "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors".
American psychologist J.B Watson maintained that psychology is essentially the science of stimuli and responses. Learned responses can be acquired by means of conditioning. So, in my opinion the baby would progress at the same rate.