ABSTRACT

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?

chapter 1|32 pages

Self-Organizing Processes in Learning to Learn Words

Development is not Induction

chapter 3|16 pages

Systems Learning Symbol Systems

Commentary on MacWhinney and Smith

chapter 4|27 pages

Inventing Arithmetic

Making Children's Intuition Work in School

chapter 5|28 pages

Learning Mathematics from Classroom Instruction

Cross-Cultural and Experimental Perspectives

chapter 6|19 pages

Mathematics Achievement of American Students

First in the World by the Year 2000?

chapter 7|23 pages

Research and Reform for U.S. Mathematics Education

What Counts? A Commentary on Stevenson, Stigler and Fernandez, and Resnick

chapter 9|13 pages

The Evolution of Mind and Culture

A Commentary on Charlesworth