Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T18:19:02.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Representing development: models, meaning, and the challenge of complexity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2008

Robert Lickliter
Robert Lickliter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Neuroconstructivism (Mareschal et al. 2007a) provides a useful framework for how to integrate research from different levels of analysis to model the multidimensional dynamics of development. However, the authors overlook the topic of meaning, a fundamental feature of cognition and subjective experience and also downplay the nonlinear nature of developmental causality. Neuroconstructivism is overly optimistic on the point of how well current computational models can address the challenge of complexity in developmental science.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , June 2008 , pp. 342 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chiel, H. J. & Beer, R. D. (1997) The brain has a body: Adaptive behavior emerges from interactions of nervous system, body, and environment. Trends in Neurosciences 20:553–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, W. (2001) How brains make up their minds. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, G. (1997) Synthesizing nature/nurture. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, G. & Halpern, C. T. (2002) A relational view of causality in normal and abnormal development. Developmental Psychopathology 14:421–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnston, T. D. & Edwards, L. (2002) Genes, interactions, and development. Psychological Review 109:26–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keller, E. F. (2002) Making sense of life: Explaining biological development with models, metaphors, and machines. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lickliter, R. & Honeycutt, H. (2003) Developmental dynamics: Toward a biologically plausible evolutionary psychology. Psychological Bulletin 129:819–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., Spratling, M., Thomas, M. & Westermann, G. (2007a) Neuroconstructivism, vol. I: How the brain constructs cognition. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K. (2007) Young minds in social worlds. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sporns, O. (2007) What neuro-robotic models can teach us about neural and cognitive development. In: Neuroconstructivism: perspectives and prospects, Volume II, ed. Mareschal, D., Sirois, S., Westermann, G. & Johnson, M. H., pp. 179–204. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, D. M. (2007) Mind from body: Experience from neural structure. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar