A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action

Thelen and Smith set out a theory of early human development built on the principles of dynamic systems theory. Beginning from their own research in motor, perceptual and cognitive development, they raise fundamental questions about the assumptions that prevail in the field, and propose in their place an account in which cognition and action are not laid down in advance but emerge from the interaction of many components over time. The book unifies advances in dynamic systems theory with research in neuroscience and neural development, treating the same principles of self-organisation as governing the way an infant learns to reach and the way knowledge takes shape. Through processes of exploration and selection, the authors argue, multimodal experiences form the bases for self-organising categories of perception and action, so that what a child knows is grounded in the history of a particular body moving in a particular world. Thelen and Smith present this as a radical alternative to current cognitive theory, both in their emphasis on dynamic representation rather than fixed and stored structures, and in their focus on the processes of change themselves rather than on the description of developmental stages.

Written from the publisher description, MIT Press.

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• Esther Thelen