ABSTRACT
Introduction So far I have attempted to describe currently popular, basic ideas in the field of cognitive development in a way that might help students simplify the “Tower of Babel” that many complain about. As explained in the Preface, I hope that describing the assumptions underlying these ideas will help students obtain a critical purchase on the numerous models that abound. The basic ideas of rationalism, associationism, and constructivism are still very much alive, but as I also warned at the outset, my intention has been to describe these as distinctive ingredients of models, and not necessarily “pure” models in themselves. Although the accounts in Chapters 1-4 have rather tightly segregated these ingredients for purposes of understanding, they do not always exist in such pristine isolation. For example in Chapters 1 and 2, I mentioned the dual system implicit or explicit in modern associationism, and indeed pervading most of cognitive psychology.
