ABSTRACT
THE TERM “STARTING position” is often used by developmental psychologists to describe the knowledge and abilities of newborn babies. It is this knowledge and these abilities that allows for subsequent cognitive development. The term “starting position” is a strange term and it could be seen to imply that development is a race. It certainly isn’t. On the contrary, humans take their time to develop. As discussed in Chapter 1, the cognitive abilities of humans are not only considerable they are also flexible. Human cognition develops in response to an ever-changing environment and for this reason innate constraints upon development are limited to those that “kick-start” development. Environmental information then feeds back into the developing system, resulting in cognitive development.
