ABSTRACT
This chapter considers representation and representational change as a manifestation and as a potential account of qualitative changes in cognitive development. The issue of representation, generally understood as internal structures and symbols corresponding to aspects of the external world, has already been considered in previous chapters. For instance, the concept of scheme has a major role in the theories of Pascual-Leone and Case. Central Conceptual Structures are also theorized by Case. The distinction between analogical and prepositional representations is crucial to the work of Lautrey and colleagues, and Specialized Structural Systems are a basic concept in Demetriou’s theory. Siegler’s rules and Fischer’s skills are largely based on mental representations of a problem situation. Recent developments in Halford’s theory have redefined representations and their degree of complexity in a connectionist framework.
