With the exception of the embrace of Piagetian theory after World War II by Anglophone psychology, modern Francophone research in the domain of human development has not become well known worldwide.
The work of a new generation of developmental theorists and experimentalists continues to shape important and original lines of thinking and research in France, Canada, and other French-speaking countries, and to contribute unique perspectives on perception, cognition, and communication. Paris, Montreal, and Geneva have provided continuous fruitful soil for research in human development, generating philosophical schools, research institutes, and eminent scientists. These cities have functioned as cradles for scientific study and still attract international meetings and conferences on child development.
Scientific concepts and research traditions are not only embedded in a paradigm, but also in a culture and in a language. the present volume testifies to the great number of refreshing ideas and heuristic paths that contemporary research in the French tradition offers an international audience. It brings together original contributions, written by researchers from different Francophone countries, to give a full account of the French tradition, including not only Piagetian paradigms, but also the concepts of Henri Wallon and other more recent authors. These contributions provide the reader with a fuller understanding of current French research practice and theory. Each chapter summarizes and interprets work on a given topic and makes explicit the context of Francophone philosophical and theoretical traditions in which the empirical advances are embedded.
This volume is divided into four sections. in the first, sensorimotor behavior and perceptuocognitive functioning are examined from different viewpoints. the second section focuses on sociocognitive development in both infancy and early . . .
