Search results for ""Author Charles A. Nelson""

Although current views of cognitive development owe a great deal to Jean Piaget, this field has undergone profound change in the years since Piaget's death. This can be witnessed both in the influence connectionist and dynamical system models have exerted on theories of cognition and language, and in how basic work in cognitive development has begun to influence those who work in applied (e.g., educational) settings. This volume brings together an eclectic group of distinguished experts who collectively represent the full spectrum of basic to applied aspects of cognitive development. This book begins with chapters on cognition and language that represent the current Zeitgeist in cognitive science approaches to cognitive development broadly defined. Following a brief commentary on this work, the next section turns to more applied issues. Although the focus here is on arithmetic learning, the research programs described have profound implications for virtually all aspects of education and learning. The last chapter views cognitive development from the perspective of ethology and evolutionary biology, and in so doing provides a theoretical perspective that is novel and in some ways, prescient: specifically, how can our views of cognition incorporate recent work in biology?

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Psychology's recent immersion in risk research has introduced a new variant in which the focus is not solely on disease, but also on the effects and consequences produced by the multiple aspects of risk on individual adaptation. Variations in such patterns of adaptation signal the entrance of protective factors as an added element to the clinical and research focus in the prediction of positive versus negative outcomes under the duress of stressful experiences. Given psychology's investment in the entire range of human adaptation--embracing severe disorder at one extreme and strong positive adaptations at the other--it is not surprising to find this new element of compensatory protective factors as a reshaping factor in the field of risk research. It is one that recognizes and studies the relevance of risk influences on disorder, but also focuses on recovery from disorder or the absence of disorder despite the presence of risk. This latter element implicates the notion of "resilience." It is this opening of the field of risk research that seems to bear the heavy and welcome imprint of psychology. Fundamental to the study of protective factors in development, however, is a broad knowledge base focused on risk factors that often contain the healthy development of infants and children. This volume reflects a continuation of the concerns of the Institute of Child Development with the nature and content of development in multiple contexts. It comes at a most welcome point since the Institute--in collaboration with the University of Minnesota's Department of Psychology--now participates in a jointly shared graduate training program in clinical psychology which stimulates and supports the growth of a newly emergent developmental psychopathology. For this field to advance will require a broad perspective and acceptance of the significance of the diversity of risk factors that extends throughout the life span and results in developmental trajectories that implicate various biological, psychological, and sociocultural risk elements.

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A new understanding of cognitive development from the perspective of neuroscience This book provides a state-of-the-art understanding of the neural bases of cognitive development. Although the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience is still in its infancy, the authors effectively demonstrate that our understanding of cognitive development is and will be vastly improved as the mechanisms underlying development are elucidated. The authors begin by establishing the value of considering neuroscience in order to understand child development and then provide an overview of brain development. They include a critical discussion of experience-dependent changes in the brain. The authors explore whether the mechanisms underlying developmental plasticity differ from those underlying adult plasticity, and more fundamentally, what distinguishes plasticity from development. Having armed the reader with key neuroscience basics, the book begins its examination of the neural bases of cognitive development by examining the methods employed by professionals in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Following a brief historical overview, the authors discuss behavioral, anatomic, metabolic, and electrophysiological methods. Finally, the book explores specific content areas, focusing on those areas where there is a significant body of knowledge on the neural underpinnings of cognitive development, including: * Declarative and non-declarative memory and learning * Spatial cognition * Object recognition * Social cognition * Speech and language development * Attention development For cognitive and developmental psychologists, as well as students in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive development, the authors' view of behavioral development from the perspective of neuroscience sheds new light on the mechanisms that underlie how the brain functions and how a child learns and behaves.

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