Cognitive Developmental Change makes a fascinating contribution to the fields of developmental, cognitive and educational science by bringing together a uniquely diverse range of perspectives for analysing the dynamics of change. Connecting traditional Piagetian, information processing, and psychometric approaches with newer frameworks for the analysis of developmental change it provides the reader with an account of the latest theory and research at the time of publication. The contributors to the volume, all internationally respected experts, were asked when writing to consider three main aspects of cognitive change. Its object (what changes in the mind during development), its nature (how does change occur?) and its causes (why does change occur? Or, what are the internal and external factors responsible for cognitive change?). As a result chapters cover key theories of cognitive change, the factors that affect change including neurological, emotional and socio-cultural factors and methods for measuring and modelling change.

Cognitive Development from a Strategy Perspective recognises the outstanding scientific legacy of Robert S. Siegler as a pioneer of modern research on cognitive development throughout the lifespan. This volume presents a collection of essays written by leading scholars in the field, using cutting-edge research to illustrate how Siegler’s work and ideas lay the groundwork for much of the modern studies on cognitive development. The collection includes chapters which examine strategic aspects of lifespan cognitive development, change mechanisms underlying cognitive development, and numeracy acquisition with emphasis given to the application of new strategies for education. It explores conceptual and methodological frameworks to best study and understand development during childhood and adulthood, and the role of foundational core knowledge on development and acquisition. These foundational issues are examined from various angles and finally integrated in a concluding panoramic chapter written by Siegler himself. Cognitive Development from a Strategy Perspective offers valuable reading for graduates and researchers in cognitive development and mathematical cognition, as well as those at the interface of psychology and education.

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

In recent years there has been a shift within developmental psychology away from examining the cognitive systems at different ages, to trying to understand exactly what are the mechanisms that generate change. What kind of learning mechanisms and representational changes drive cognitive development? How can the imaging techniques available help us to understand these mechanisms? This new volume in the highy cited and critically acclaimed Attention and Performance series is the first to provide a systematic investigation into the processes of change in mental development. It brings together world class scientists to address brain and cognitive development at several different levels, including phylogeny, genetics, neurophysiology, brain imaging, behavior, and computational modeling, across both typically and atypically developing populations. Presenting original new research from the frontiers of cognitive neuroscience, this book will have a substantial impact in this field, as well as on developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience.

In Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development, Frank C. Keil provides a coherent account of how concepts and word meanings develop in children, adding to our understanding of the representational nature of concepts and word meanings at all ages. Keil argues that it is impossible to adequately understand the nature of conceptual representation without also considering the issue of learning. Weaving together issues in cognitive development, philosophy, and cognitive psychology, he reconciles numerous theories, backed by empirical evidence from nominal kinds studies, natural-kinds studies, and studies of fundamental categorical distinctions. He shows that all this evidence, when put together, leads to a better understanding of semantic and conceptual development. The book opens with an analysis of the problems of modeling qualitative changes in conceptual development, investigating how concepts of natural kinds, nominal kinds, and artifacts evolve. The studies on nominal kinds document a powerful and unambiguous developmental pattern indicating a shift from a reliance on global tabulations of characteristic features to what appears to be a small set of defining ones. The studies on natural kinds document an analogous shift toward a core theory instead of simple definition. Both sets of studies are strongly supported by cross cultural data. While these patterns seem to suggest that the young child organizes concepts according to characteristic features, Keil argues that there is a framework of conceptual categories and causal beliefs that enables even very young children to understand kinds at a deeper, theoretically guided, level. This account suggests a new way of understanding qualitative change and carries strong implications for how concepts are represented at any point in development. A Bradford Book

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Cognitive function is crucial to human beings right across the life course. Developed in an early age, cognitive function is influenced by environmental factors, changing over time. This book has reviewed and updated some areas on cognitive development, processes and challenges. Across 11 chapters, the book covers topics ranging from theory explorations to original studies in the real world. This book offers important insight into a theoretical understanding of the basic cognitive processes involved in the generation of new knowledge and ways in which to promote the development of learning and semantic memory. Cognitive development and its relation to emotional development is examined, and how traditional and current theories of cognitive development provide a framework for understanding the development of emotional processing in children. Children's conceptual development and cross-classification theories have been reviewed, particularly examining how children use classification, the ability to group items into categories, to structure the world into meaningful units. The effects of different parent-child activities on early literacy have been examined with a discussion on the contribution of different parent-child dyadic activities at home in promoting skills that pave the way to reading and spelling acquisition. On determining the relations among parenting, socio-emotional engagement, shared practices, language and perspective taking skills, new data shows that constructivist approaches provide a powerful way to investigate the development of children's social cognition. They also indicate that maternal factors and mother-child shared practices facilitate a child's mastery of sentential complements, conversation skill, and explicit perspective taking skills. In particular, this book has explored the face-inversion effect in children, with new perspectives indicating that expert face processing mechanisms are only employed for the recognition of faces from the age of 10, but inexpert mechanisms were employed prior to this age.