ABSTRACT
Imagine trying to control an automobile without the structure of a steering wheel, steering column, or mechanical linkage to the front wheels. Or, imagine trying to ride a horse without reins or a bit with which to communicate your intentions and guide its movements. Such mundane examples point up the inseparable relation between structure and control in everyday life. Given this obvious relationship, it is surprising to find that theories of cognitive development have typically provided very little explanation of how the development of cognitive structure is related to the development of behavioral control. Instead, structural theories of cognitive development have tended to project formal and universalist concepts of cognitive structure like Piagetian stages or Chomskian competencies. Such concepts are so static and abstract that they offer little insight as to how cognitive structure might function in the control of actual behavior which is always dynamic and concrete. As a consequence, there has been little basis for relating cognitive structural development with processes of behavioral control.
