Cognition in Children

Using the interpersonal event as the unit of analysis, the authors examine how children interactively co-construct knowledge and ways of knowing in social contexts. An illustration of the idea that thinking is as much interactive as self-reflective--one that supports the cognitive developmental theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky--this important study delves into the social origins of thought and the inherently discursive nature of thinking itself.

"Children do not need to be made to learn", Holt maintains, because each is born with what Einstein called "the holy curiosity of inquiry". For them, learning is as natural as breathing. First published in 1967, How Children Learn has become a classic for parents and teachers, providing an "effective, gentle voice of reason" (Life).

This collection of essays addresses problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, and various conceptions of the learning and thinking process as well as suggestions on how to facilitate these within the academic and business domains. Included are current points of view on the nature of learning and thinking from a wide representation of international sources. The book provides: an overview of cognitive science; a discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of higher order thinking; developed programs for the enhancement of thinking skills in elementary, secondary, and college populations; essays on reading and arithmetic, as well as history, physical education, and social competence; a discussion of the role and development of thinking skills in the business domain; and essays emphasizing that creative thinking is within the reach of almost anyone.

There are many aspects of life which require us to distinguish between memories of different events, such as deciding whether you locked the door or only intended to lock the door. Source monitoring, or identifying the source of a particular memory (was the event experienced? related by someone else? or simply imagined?) is a cognitive skill that develops across the life span. In this book, the first to integrate research on children's source monitoring, readers will find an accessible overview of source-monitoring theory and findings from the research programs of leading investigators in this area. The programs of research cut across different methodologies (e.g., nomothetic, individual differences, clinical) and are applied to a wide range of issues in children's lives. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects of source monitoring on eyewitness memory and identification, learning and knowledge, and the development of a theory of mind.

Whether or not infants' earliest perception of the world is a "blooming, buzzing confusion", it is not long before they come to perceive structure and order among the objects and events around them. At the core of this process, and cognitive development in general, is the ability to categorize - to group events, objects or properties together - and to form mental representations, or concepts, that encapsulate the commonalties and structure of these categories. Categorization is the primary means of coding experience, underlying not only perceptual and reasoning processes, but also inductive inference and language. The aim of this book is to bring together the most recent findings and theories about the origins and early development of categorization and conceptual abilities. Despite recent advances in our understanding of this area, a number of hotly debated issues remain at the centre of the controversy over categorization. Researchers continue to ask questions such as: Which mechanisms for categorization are available at birth and which emerge later? What are the relative roles of perceptual similarity and non-observable properties in early classification? What is the role of contextual variation on categorization by infants and children? Do different experimental procedures tap the same kind of knowledge? Can computational models simulate infant and child categorization, and how do these models inform behavioural research? What is the impact of language on category development? How does language partition the world? This book is the first to address these and other key questions within a single volume. The authors present a diverse set of views representing cutting-edge empirical and theoretical advances in the field.

As they play, children do more than imagine--they also invent life-long approaches to thinking, feeling, and relating to other people. For nearly a century, clinical psychologists have been concerned with the content and interpersonal meaning of play. More recently, developmental psychologists have concentrated on the links between the emergence of symbolic play and evolving thought and language. At last, this volume bridges the gap between the two disciplines by defining their common interests and by developing areas of interface and interrelatedness. The editors have brought together original chapters by distinguished psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists, social workers, and developmental psychologists who shed light on topics outside the traditional confines of their respective domains. Thus the book features clinicians exploring subjects such as play representation, narrative, metaphor, and symbolization, and developmentalists examining questions regarding affect, social development, conflict, and psychopathology. Taken together, the contributors offer a rich, integrative view of the many dimensions of early play as it occurs among peers, between parent and child, and in the context of therapy.