Description

How do children acquire the vast array of concepts, strategies, and skills that distinguish the thinking of infants and toddlers from that of preschoolers, older children, and adolescents? In this new book, Robert Siegler addresses these and other fundamental questions about children's thinking. Previous theories have tended to depict cognitive development much like a staircase. At an early age, children think in one way; as they get older, they step up to increasingly higher ways of thinking. Siegler proposes that viewing the development within an evolutionary framework is more useful than a staircase model. The evolution of species depends on mechanisms for generating variability, for choosing adaptively among the variants, and for preserving the lessons of past experience so that successful variants become increasingly prevalent. The development of children's thinking appears to depend on mechanisms to fulfill these same functions. Siegler's theory is consistent with a great deal of evidence. It unifies phenomena from such areas as problem solving, reasoning, and memory, and reveals commonalities in the thinking of people of all ages. Most important, it leads to valuable insights regarding a basic question about children's thinking asked by cognitive, developmental, and educational psychologists: How does change occur?

Reviews

"Siegler proposes a paradigmatic shift in the field of child development, away from the study of `essences' and toward the study of change. . . . The results are intriguing and perhaps revolutionary--must-reading for professionals in the field of cognition."--Choice

"This is one of those rare books that promises to change the way that psychologists view the central problem of developmental psychology. . .Siegler provides a cogent and convincing argument that variability is a constant in thought at all levels and provides the key to cutting through to the problem of cognitive change. . . Few will be able to read it without considering how to apply this model and methods to their own domain of interest." --Kevin Miller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Product Details

288 pages; 46 line illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-512663-1ISBN10: 0-19-512663-7

About the Author(s)