A Dynamic Systems Approach to Development – Applications (Cognitive Psychology) - Hardcover

Smith, Linda B.; Thelen, Esther

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262193337 ISBN 13: 9780262193337

Publisher: MIT Press, 1993

Synopsis

What do laser lights, crystals, walking, reaching, and concepts have in common? All are complex dynamic systems. Over the last decade, the burgeoning fields of synergetics and nonlinear dynamics have shown in mathematically precise ways how such complex systems can produce emergent order from the cooperation of many simpler elements. A Dynamic Systems Approach to Development explores the value of dynamical systems principles for solving the enduring puzzles of development, including the ultimate source of change, the problems of continuity and discontinuities, and nonlinear outcomes and individual differences.

This companion volume to the forthcoming A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action shows how the ideas of dynamic systems may form the basis for a new theory of human development. The problems considered include areas of motor development, perceptual and cognitive development, and social development. The use of dynamic systems ranges from the metaphorical to the rigorously mathematical, but in all cases the contributions present a step forward in developmental theory.

About this title

About the Authors

Linda B. Smith is a Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana University.

Esther Thelen was Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana University before her death in 2004.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262193337
• ISBN 13: 9780262193337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432