ABSTRACT
Throughout her career, Katherine Nelson has attempted to expand the scope of de-
velopmental psychology beyond research on the isolated mind of the individual
child. For example, her early work on language acquisition (e.g., Nelson, 1973)
stressed the importance of function and social context in children’s early concept
formation. Nelson’s later work, exemplified by her 1996 book, Language in Cog-
nitive Development: The Emergence of the Mediated Mind, focused on the role of
culture in cognitive development. In this book, Nelson argued that cognitive de-
velopment is a process involving a system of different strands-including biology,
psychology, and social processes-that contribute to the developing mind. Funda-
mental to this characterization of development is the process of cultural mediation.
Nelson argued that from the very outset, children’s knowledge of the world is me-
diated by virtue of being situated in a cultural environment. Culture mediates de-
velopment in two main ways. First, children’s specific experiences in the world
are determined by their social and cultural environment. Second, it is from culture
that children acquire the representational systems that ultimately become the “me-
dium, mediator and tools” of thought.
