ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author discusses his work in collaboration with Annette Karmiloff-Smith to extend the neuroconstructivist theoretical framework to intelligence, that is, individual differences in cognitive ability within the normal range. He reviews evidence showing how the neuroconstructivist approach can explain the rise and fall of intelligence over development, in terms of a dynamic interaction between the developing system itself and the environmental factors involved at different times across ontogenesis. The author illustrates how Annette's theory echoes in the state-of-the-art models of intellectual development. The neuroconstructivist approach proposed by Karmiloff-Smith characterizes development as a trajectory that is shaped by multiple interacting biological and environmental constraints. As such, neuroconstructivism integrates different views of brain and cognitive development. Contrary to popular selectionist models that rely on regressive mechanisms, according to “neural constructivism,” the representational features of cortex are dynamically built from the interaction between neural growth mechanisms and environmentally derived neural activity.
