The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development

This handbook presents a cutting-edge overview of cognitive development, spanning methodology, key domain-based findings and applications.

Olivier Houdé (Edited by), Grégoire Borst (Edited by)

9781108436632, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 March 2022

800 pages
24.4 x 16.9 x 4 cm, 1.32 kg

'This comprehensive and impressive volume situates the current thinking in cognitive development in historical and philosophical context. Characterizing the last 40 years of cognitive developmental research as fundamentally interdisciplinary, the editors bring together research in neurobiology, experimental psychology, computational modelling, comparative psychology, and educational application. The expert contributors present accessible chapters integrating theory and empirical evidence throughout. This extensive overview of current work will be of value to those working in the field, especially those starting out, as well as researchers in other disciplines who want to understand contemporary thought in cognitive development.' Sarah Beck, Professor of Cognitive Development, University of Birmingham, UK

How does cognition develop in infants, children and adolescents? This handbook presents a cutting-edge overview of the field of cognitive development, spanning basic methodology, key domain-based findings and applications. Part One covers the neurobiological constraints and laws of brain development, while Part Two covers the fundamentals of cognitive development from birth to adulthood: object, number, categorization, reasoning, decision-making and socioemotional cognition. The final Part Three covers educational and school-learning domains, including numeracy, literacy, scientific reasoning skills, working memory and executive skills, metacognition, curiosity-driven active learning and more. Featuring chapters written by the world's leading scholars in experimental and developmental psychology, as well as in basic neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, computational modelling and developmental robotics, this collection is the most comprehensive reference work to date on cognitive development of the twenty-first century. It will be a vital resource for scholars and graduate students in developmental psychology, neuroeducation and the cognitive sciences.

Part I. Neurobiological Constraints and Laws of Cognitive Development: 1. How life regulation and feelings motivate the cultural mind: a neurobiological account
2. Epigenesis, synapse selection, cultural imprints and human brain development: from molecules to cognition
3. Mapping the human brain from the preterm period to infancy using 3D magnetic resonance imaging: cortical folding and early maturation processes
4. Development and maturation of the human brain from infancy to adolescence
5. Genetic and experiential factors in brain development: the examples of executive attention and self-regulation
6. The brain basis underlying the transition from adolescent to adulthood
Part II. Fundamentals of Cognitive Development from Infancy to Adolescence and Young Adulthood: 7. Differences between humans, great apes and monkeys in cognition, communication, language and morality
8. Individuating and physical reasoning about objects in infancy
9. Infant categorization
10. Infant numerical cognition: does primitive number sense provide a foothold for learning formal mathematics?
11. How sophisticated is infants' theory of mind?
12. Social cognition and moral evaluation in early human childhood
13. Scientific thinking and reasoning in infants and young children
14. Computational approaches to cognitive development in infancy: Bayesian and artificial-neural-network models
15. Development of qualitative thinking: language and categorization
16. Development of numerical knowledge
17. Numerical cognition and executive functions: development as progressive inhibitory control of misleading visuospatial dimensions
18. Developing theory of mind and counterfactual reasoning in children
19. Development of executive function skills in childhood: relevance for important life-outcomes
20. Developing executive functions and flexible adaptation during childhood
21. Reasoning bias and dual process theory: developmental considerations and current directions
22. Social cognitive development: the intergroup context
23. Behavioral and neural development of cognitive control and risky decision-making across adolescence
24. The Triadic neural systems model through a machine-learning
Part III. Education and School-learning Domains: 25. Linking cognitive neuroscientific research to educational practice in the classroom
26. Literacy: understanding normal and impaired reading development through personalized large-scale neurocomputational models
27. Reasoning in mathematical development: neurocognitive foundations and their implications for the classroom
28. Children's scientific reasoning skills in light of general cognitive development
29. Working memory training: from the laboratory to schools
30. Interventions for improving executive functions during development: working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibition
31. Curiosity-driven learning in development: computational theories and educational applications
32. Neurocomputational methods: from models of brain and cognition to artificial intelligence in education.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Child & developmental psychology [JMC]