Mechanisms of Cognitive Development: Behavioral and Neural Perspectives

by McClelland,James L.

• ISBN13: 9780805832761
• ISBN10: 0805832769
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

This volume considers how children's thinking evolves during development, with a focus on the role of experience in causing change. It brings together cutting-edge research by leaders in the psychology and neurobiology of child development to examine the processes by which children learn and those that make children ready and able to learn at particular points in development. Behavioral approaches include research on the "microgenesis" of cognitive change over short time periods (e.g., several hour-long sessions) in specific task situations. Research on cognitive change over longer time scales (months and years) is also presented, as well as research that uses computational modeling and dynamical systems approaches to understand learning and development. Neural approaches include the study of how neuronal activity and connectivity change during acquisition of cognitive skills in children and adults. Other investigations consider the possible emergence of cognitive abilities through the maturation of brain structures and the effects of experience on the organization of functions in the brain. Developmental anomalies, such as autism and attention deficit disorder are also examined as windows on normal development. Four questions drive the volume: *Why do cognitive abilities emerge when they do during development? *What are the sources of developmental and individual differences, and of developmental anomalies in learning? *What happens in the brain when people learn? *How can experiences be ordered and timed to optimize learning? The answers to these questions have strong implications for how we educate children and remediate deficits that have impeded the development of thinking abilities. These implications are explored in several chapters in the volume, as well as in the commentaries by leading discussants.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
PART I: STUDIES OF THE MICROGENESIS OF COGNITIVE CHANGE
Behavioral Approaches
Giving the Mind a Hand: The Role of Gesture in Cognitive Change	5	(28)
Susan Goldin-Meadow
Children's Discoveries and Brain-Damaged Patients' Rediscoveries	33	(34)
Robert S. Siegler
Neuroscience Approaches
Cortical Plasticity Contributing to Child Development	67	(30)
Michael M. Merzenich
Failures to Learn and Their Remediation: A Hebbian Account	97	(26)
James L. McClelland
PET Studies of Learning and Individual Differences	123	(26)
Richard J. Haier
Commentary
Breakthroughs in Using Individual Differences to Study Learning: Comments on Goldin-Meadow, Haier, McClelland, Merzenich, and Siegler	149	(12)
James W. Stigler
PART II: STUDIES OF CHANGE OVER LONGER TIME SCALES
Behavioral Approaches
Dynamic Mechanisms of Change in Early Perceptual-Motor Development	161	(24)
Esther Thelen
Differentiation, Integration, and Covariance Mapping as Fundamental Processes in Cognitive and Neurological Growth	185	(36)
Robbie Case
Michael P. Mueller
Why Development Does (and Does Not) Occur: Evidence From the Domain of Inductive Reasoning	221	(32)
Deanna Kuhn
Neuroscience Approaches
Developing Cortical Specialization for Visual-Cognitive Function: The Case of Face Recognition	253	(18)
Mark H. Johnson
Michelle de Haan
Variability of Developmental Plasticity	271	(20)
Helen J. Neville
Daphne Bavelier
Commentary
Time Matters in Cognitive Development	291	(16)
David Klahr
PART III: DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
Dyslexia
Neural Plasticity in Dyslexia: A Window to Mechanisms of Learning Disabilities	307	(20)
Albert M. Galaburda
Glenn D. Rosen
Attention Deficit Disorder
Disruption of Inhibitory Control in Developmental Disorders: A Mechanistic Model of Implicated Frontostriatal Circuitry	327	(26)
B. J. Casey
Autism
Dynamic Cortical Systems Subserving Cognition: fMRI Studies With Typical and Atypical Individuals	353	(34)
Patricia A. Carpenter
Marcel Adam Just
Timothy Keller
Vladimir Cherkassky
Jennifer K. Roth
Nancy Minshew
Concluding Commentary
Educating the Human Brain: A Commentary	387	(14)
Michael I. Posner
Author Index	401	(18)
Subject Index	419