ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Mind Over Matter. Over time, and with experience, children develop the ability to create ideas and to think about the mind itself. The ability to form these complex ideas allows children to begin to think about other people as separate from themselves. It allows them to form a concept of another person's mind, and to engage in social functions such as pretending. Thinking and learning arise from our most basic connection to the world around us, which is through our senses. We tend to think of our senses as if they are a direct conduit bringing us pictures and sounds from the world "out there" and things "as they are." That is a useful point of view for many purposes. This idea stems, in part, from the way sensation and perception were studied traditionally. Most theories of perception have been constructed with vision in mind.
