The standard approach to cognitive development most frequently consists of cross-sectional studies comparing different ages and groups while restricted to a single task. The necessity to focus on the individual in an idiographic perspective, rather than on the task or the variable, has been repeatedly emphasized, most recently in several very important papers by Nesselroade and Molenaar. Variability has also emerged as a crucial characteristic. Moreover, understanding the developmental construction of a given cognitive achievement is imperative to understanding cognitive functioning in adulthood. The general objective of this book is to focus on the individual by studying intraindividual and interindividual variability in various cognitive tasks, that is, intraindividual variability across items of a given task (“inconsistency”), across various cognitive tasks (“dispersion”), and/or across years (“intraindividual change”), and of course, on interindividual differences in intraindividual variability. This book presents empirical studies that have been conducted by research groups in Europe and in North America, prominent in the field of variability and development or methodology. The 26 authors/co-authors include senior authors such as Lautrey, Schmiedek, Dauvier, van der Maas, Ghisletta, Stawski, MacDonald, and de Ribaupierre.

Over the past three decades mounting evidence has suggested that infants’ social perceptual and social cognitive abilities are considerably richer than was once thought. By the end of the second year of life, infants discriminate faces along various social dimensions, attend to and understand others’ goals and intentions, use the emotions of others to guide their learning and behavior, attribute dispositional characteristics to other agents, and make basic social evaluations. What has also become clear is that there is a great deal of variability in infants’ social perception and cognition. A critical, outstanding question concerns the nature and meaning of such variability. The proposed Research Topic welcomes papers addressing cutting-edge questions regarding variability and individual differences in early social perception and social cognition. The goal of these papers is to investigate overarching questions in this domain, which are necessary to move the field forward. Variability in early social perception and social cognition (among other domains) in infancy and early childhood is often attributed to noise, or overlooked in favor of focusing on age-related changes. Yet, recent work suggests that variability in social perceptual and social cognitive tasks reliably inter-relates, and predicts real-world social behaviors. For example, infants’ everyday experience with different face categories predicts individual differences in face processing, infants’ production of goal-directed actions predicts their simultaneous understanding of these actions, and variability in social attention during the second year of life is related to theory of mind during the preschool years. These findings suggest that variability in performance on social perception and social cognition tasks is not merely a nuisance variable, but, rather, may provide the key to addressing significant questions regarding the nature of infants’ social perception and social cognition, and the processes that underlie developmental change. Acknowledging and closely examining and investigating variability in early social perceptual and social cognitive abilities may represent a powerful approach for understanding development in (at least) two ways. First, variability can signal transitional points in the developmental onset of a given ability. Thus, such variability, and the extent to which variability relates to experience and/or other abilities, can be used to test hypotheses regarding mechanisms that underlie developmental changes. Second, variability can represent more enduring individual differences between infants. In this case, critical questions arise regarding the source of individual differences (that is, what factors shape the emergence of individual differences?) and whether such early individual differences contribute to the development of more advanced and sophisticated forms of social cognition and behavior. The goal of this Research Topic will be to encourage researchers to take variability in early social perception and cognition seriously. Papers that give variability center stage, and are aimed at addressing the value of variability for identifying developmental mechanisms, as well as investigating the existence, source, and antecedents of early individual differences in social perception and social cognition are welcomed. Taken together, the contributed papers will provide integral new information to the study of social perception and social cognition over the first three years of life.

What are the processes, from conception to adulthood, that enable a single cell to grow into a sentient adult? The processes that occur along the way are so complex that any attempt to understand development necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating data from cognitive studies, computational work, and neuroimaging - an approach till now seldom taken in the study of child development. Neuroconstructivism is a major new 2 volume publication that seeks to redress this balance, presenting an integrative new framework for considering development. In the first volume, the authors review up-to-to date findings from neurobiology, brain imaging, child development, computer and robotic modelling to consider why children's thinking develops the way it does. They propose a new synthesis of development that is based on 5 key principles found to operate at many levels of descriptions. They use these principles to explain what causes a number of key developmental phenomena, including infants' interacting with objects, early social cognitive interactions, and the causes of dyslexia. The "neuroconstructivist" framework also shows how developmental disorders do not arise from selective damage to the normal cognitive system, but instead arise from developmental processes that operate under atypical constraints. How these principles work is illustrated in several case studies ranging from perceptual to social and reading development. Finally, the authors use neuroimaging, behavioural analyses, computational simulations and robotic models to provide a way of understanding the mechanisms and processes that cause development to occur.

If you had just one wish for the study of human development, what would it be? How would it advance the field? And what would it take for your vision to be realized? This was the charge given to twenty-eight scholars, coming from different disciplines and fields, and who study different periods of the life course. This book compiles provocative contributions from a wide range of established scholars, organized into seven thematic areas: conceptual advances; systems, levels, and contexts; individual differences; methodological advances; harnessing science for human welfare and social justice; underexplored life course dynamics; and interdisciplinary collaboration and playing well with others. This book was originally published as a special issue of Research in Human Development.

Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, Second Edition, provides a comprehensive entry point into the existing literature on child development in the fields of psychology, genetics, neuroscience and sociology. Featuring 171 chapters, across 3 volumes, this work helps readers understand these developmental changes, when they occur, why they occur, how they occur, and the factors that influence development. Although some medical information is included, the emphasis lies mainly in normal growth, primarily from a psychological perspective. Comprehensive and in-depth scholarly articles cover theoretical, applied and basic science topics, providing an interdisciplinary approach. All articles have been completely updated, making this resource ideal for a wide range of readers, including advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and clinicians in developmental psychology, medicine, nursing, social science and early childhood education. Cutting-edge content that cover the period of neonates to age three Organized alphabetically by topic for ease of reference Provides in-depth scholarly articles, covering theoretical, applied and basic science Includes suggested readings at the end of each article

"My experience is what I agree to attend to," wrote William James (1890) nearly a century ago in his Principles of Psychology. Although certainly not the first to recognize the importance of attention in man's experience--poets and philosophers throughout history have touched upon the concept in one way or another-James deserves credit for having accorded attention a central role in the systematic study of the mind. With the advancement of psychology since that time, except during the behaviorist digression, the concept of attention has been an integral part of many prominent theories dealing with learning, thinking, and other aspects of cognitive functioning. Indeed, attention is an important determinant of experience from birth throughout development. This has been an implicit assumption underlying our view of cognition since the writings of Charles Darwin (1897) and Wilhelm Preyer (1888) as well as James, all of whom offered provocative insights about the developing child's commerce with the environment. Al though systematic research on attention in children was slow to pick up during the early part of this century, interest in the developmental study of attention has expanded enormously in recent years.

The Exercise Effect on Mental Health contains the most recent and thorough overview of the links between exercise and mental health, and the underlying mechanisms of the brain. The text will enhance interested clinicians’ and researchers’ understanding of the neurobiological effect of exercise on mental health. Editors Budde and Wegner have compiled a comprehensive review of the ways in which physical activity impacts the neurobiological mechanisms of the most common psychological and psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. This text presents a rigorously evidence-based case for exercise as an inexpensive, time-saving, and highly effective treatment for those suffering from mental illness and distress.

International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, Volume 63 highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters written by an international board of authors, including updates on Theoretical Issues in Adult Siblings, Effects of Challenging Behavior on Others, Transition among Latino Families, Career and Technical Education for adults with IDD, and Emotion Regulation and Social Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorders. - Provides the authority and expertise of leading contributors from an international board of authors - Presents the latest release in the International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities series

This definitive volume is the result of collaboration by top scholars in the field of children's cognition. New edition offers an up-to-date overview of all the major areas of importance in the field, and includes new data from cognitive neuroscience and new chapters on social cognitive development and language Provides state-of-the-art summaries of current research by international specialists in different areas of cognitive development Spans aspects of cognitive development from infancy to the onset of adolescence Includes chapters on symbolic reasoning, pretend play, spatial development, abnormal cognitive development and current theoretical perspectives