From William James to Sigmund Freud to Jean Piaget to B.F. Skinner, scholars (and parents!) have wondered how children move from the blooming, buzzing confusion of infancy, through the tumult of childhood and adolescence, into adulthood. Does development occur continuously over time or in a series of dramatic stages? Is development driven by learning or by biological maturational processes? What is the nature of experience, and how does it generate change? The study
of development has always been organized around these big questions. And answers to these questions have a profound influence on daily life, forming a framework for how parents think about their own
children, and influencing both national policy and educational curricula.This book defines and refines two major theoretical approaches within developmental science that address the central issues of development--connectionism and dynamical systems theory. Spencer, Thomas, and McClelland have brought together chapters that provide an introduction, overview, and critical evaluation of each approach, including three sets of case studies that illustrate how both approaches
have been used to study topics ranging from early motor development to the acquisition of grammar. They also present a collection of commentaries by leading scholars, which offer a critical view from
both an"outsiders's" and an "insider's" perspective. The book is unique in the range of its treatment--it begins to delineate how developmental science can incorporate advances within neuroscience and computational modeling, and brings the new ideas of connectionism and dynamic systems theory into sharper focus, clarifying their usefulness and explanatory power.
From William James to Sigmund Freud to Jean Piaget to B.F. Skinner, scholars (and parents!) have wondered how children move from the blooming, buzzing confusion of infancy, through the tumult of childhood and adolescence, into adulthood. Does development occur continuously over time or in a series of dramatic stages? Is development driven by learning or by biological maturational processes? What is the nature of experience, and how does it generate change? The study
of development has always been organized around these big questions. And answers to these questions have a profound influence on daily life, forming a framework for how parents think about their own
children, and influencing both national policy and educational curricula.This book defines and refines two major theoretical approaches within developmental science that address the central issues of development--connectionism and dynamical systems theory. Spencer, Thomas, and McClelland have brought together chapters that provide an introduction, overview, and critical evaluation of each approach, including three sets of case studies that illustrate how both approaches
have been used to study topics ranging from early motor development to the acquisition of grammar. They also present a collection of commentaries by leading scholars, which offer a critical view from
both an"outsiders's" and an "insider's" perspective. The book is unique in the range of its treatment--it begins to delineate how developmental science can incorporate advances within neuroscience and computational modeling, and brings the new ideas of connectionism and dynamic systems theory into sharper focus, clarifying their usefulness and explanatory power.
Introduction John P. Spencer, Michael S.C. Thomas, and James L.
McClelland
I. Introduction to the Approaches
1: Connectionist Models of Development: Mechanistic Dynamical
Models with Emergent Dynamical Properties James L. McClelland and
Gautam Vallabha
2: Development as Change of System Dynamics: Stability,
Instability, and Emergence Gregor Schoner
II. Dynamical Systems Theory: Case Studies
3: Brain, Body, and Mind: Lessons from Infant Motor Development
Daniela Corbetta
4: Dynamic Systems, Sensory-motor Processes, and the Origins of
Stability and Flexibility Linda B. Smith
5: Dynamic Field Theory and Embodied Cognitive Dynamics John P.
Spencer, Sammy Perone, and Jeff Johnson
6: Time Scales in Connectionist and Dynamical Systems Approaches to
Learning and Development Karl M. Newell, Yeou-Teh Liu, and
Gottfried Mayer-Kress
III. Connectionism: Case Studies
7: Connectionist Approaches to Perservation: Understanding
Universal and Task-Specific Aspects of Children's Behavior J. Bruce
Morton and Yuko Munakata
8: Dynamical Insight into Structure in Connectionist Models Whitney
Tabor
9: The Robot as a New Frontier for Connectionism and Dynamic
Systems Theory Matthew Schlesinger
IV. Hybrid Models: Case Studies
10: Combining Connectionist and Dynamic Systems Principles in
Models of Development: The Case of Analogical Completion Denis
Mareschal, Robert Leech, and Richard P. Cooper
11: Integrating Connectionist Learning and Dynamical Systems
Processing: Case Studies in Speech and Lexical Development Bob
McMurray, Jessica S. Horst, Joseph C. Toscano, and Larissa K.
Samuelson
V. Reactions from the "Outside"
12: Soft-Assembled Mechanisms for the Grand Theory Heidi Kloos and
Guy C. Van Orden
13: Are Dynamic Systems and Connectionist Approaches an Alternative
to "Good Old Fashioned Cognitive Development"? Lisa M. Oakes, Nora
S. Newcombe, and Jodie M. Plumert
14: A Developmental Systems Theory Perspective on Psychological
Change Timothy D. Johnston and Robert Lickliter
VI. Reactions from the "Inside"
15: Transitions in Cognitive Development: Prospects and Limitations
of a Neural Dynamic Approach Han L. J. van der Maas and Maartje E.
J. Raijmakers
16: Dynamic Systems and the Quest for Individual-Based Models of
Change and Development Paul van Geert and Kurt Fischer
17: Dynamic and Connectionist Approaches to Development: Toward a
Future of Mutually Beneficial Co-evolution Michael S. C. Thomas,
James L. McClelland, Fiona M. Richardson, Anna C. Shapiro, and
Frank Baughman
18: Moving Toward a New Grand Theory While Valuing the Importance
of the Initial Conditions John P. Spencer, Evelina Dineva, and
Gregor Schoner
John P. Spencer is a Professor of Psychology at the University of
Iowa and the founding Co-Director of the Iowa Center for
Developmental and Learning Sciences. He received a Sc.B. with
Honors from Brown University in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Experimental
Psychology from Indiana University in 1998. He is the recipient of
the Irving J. Saltzman and the J.R. Kantor Graduate Awards from
Indiana University, the Early Research Contributions Award from
the
Society for Research in Child Development, and the Robert L. Fantz
Memorial Award from the American Psychological Foundation. His
research examines the development of visuo-spatial cognition,
spatial language, working
memory, and attention, with an emphasis on dynamical systems and
neural network models of cognition and action. He has had
continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health and the
National Science Foundation since 2001.
Michael S. C. Thomas is a Reader in Cognitive Neuropsychology at
Birkbeck College, University of London, and the director of the
Developmental Neurocognition Lab at the Centre for Brain and
Cognitive Development. He is part of a team awarded the Queen's
Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2006. Dr.
Thomas received his B.Sc. in psychology from the University of
Exeter, an M.Sc. degree in cognitive science from the University of
Birmingham, and a D.Phil. in
Experimental Psychology (on behavioral and computational studies of
bilingualism) at the University of Oxford, UK. His research focuses
on language and cognitive development, and specifically
neurocomputational
explanations of the variability seen in typical children and in
children with developmental disorders. His work combines behavioral
methods, computational modeling, and structural and functional
brain imaging (see www.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/research/DNL/).
James L. McClelland received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from
the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. He served on the faculty of
the University of California, San Diego, before moving to Carnegie
Mellon in 1984, where he became a University Professor and held the
Walter Van Dyke Bingham Chair in Psychology and Cognitive
Neuroscience. He was a founding Co-Director of the Center for the
Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint project of Carnegie Mellon and
the University of
Pittsburgh. He served as Co-Director until 2006, when he moved to
Stanford University, where he is now Professor of Psychology and is
the founding Director of the Center for Mind, Brain and
Computation.
"What is knowledge and how is it acquired? Radical answers to these
questions are proposed by the world's leading exponents of
dynamical systems theory and connectionist modeling. The volume
represents the first comprehensive review of the theoretical
relationship between these two frameworks for understanding
development. Readers will gain a thorough appreciation of the
complementary nature of connectionism and dynamical systems, and
receive guidance on how
they might be unified in the service of a grand theory. If you are
interested in the mechanisms of developmental change, you ignore
this book at your peril."
--Kim Plunkett, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of
Oxford
"There is no more complex construction project on earth than the
development of the human brain. This integrated collection of
chapters offers a new perspective on how development manages to
accomplish the seemingly conflicting goals of maintaining stability
while orchestrating massive changes as the brain grows into a human
mind."
--Terrence Sejnowski, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and
University of California, San Diego
"There are many good reasons for presuming that a theory of
development should guide inquiry into perception, action and
cognition. Unfortunately no developmental theory of the requisite
scope and depth has been forthcoming. In the present volume we are
given the opportunity to evaluate whether the desired level of
theory could emerge from the perspectives of connectionism and
dynamical systems, singly or in combination. Minimally, the volume
makes us acutely
aware of the challenges confronting efforts to formalize human
development."
--Michael Turvey, Board of Trustees' Distinguished Professor
Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut and
Senior Research Scientist, Haskins Laboratories
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