Taking development seriously : a festschrift for Annette Karmiloff-Smith : neuroconstructivism and the multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the emergence of mind

This influential festschrift honours the legacy of Annette Karmiloff-Smith, a seminal thinker in the field of child development and a pioneer in developmental cognitive neuroscience. The current volume brings together many of the researchers, collaborators and students who worked with Professor Karmiloff-Smith to show how her ideas have influenced and continue to influence their own research. Over four parts, each covering a different phase or domain of Karmiloff-Smith’s research career, leading developmental psychologists in cognition, neuroscience and computer science reflect on her extensive contribution, from her early work with Piaget in Geneva to her innovative research project investigating children with Down syndrome to understand the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. The chapters provide a mix of cutting-edge science and reminiscence, providing a fascinating insight into the historical contexts in which many of Annette’s theoretical insights arose, including such ideas as the microgenetic approach, representational redescription and neuroconstructivism. The chapters also provide updates about how earlier theoretical ideas have stood the test of time, and present unpublished data from the early years of Annette’s career. Taking Development Seriously is essential reading for students and scholars in child development and developmental neuroscience. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Contributors 1. Annette Karmiloff-Smith: Scientist, mother and friend Overview of chapters Part one: Geneva and Beyond Modularity Part two: Rethinking Innateness Part three: Neuroconstructivism and developmental disorders Part four: New avenues References 2. The cognitive underpinnings of relative clause comprehension in children The linguistic and cognitive underpinnings of relative clause comprehension The design of our study in Geneva The findings and next steps Evidence for a cognitive bottleneck from coordinate sentences with passive clauses Support from the subsequent literature on children and adults The long reach of the relative clause Note References 3. On the construction of the developmental problem in Karmiloff-Smith's theory Annette Karmiloff-Smith's first steps in psychology Three "seasons" of research at CIEG A long and difficult path into psycholinguistics Looking for the processes of development with Inhelder Goodbye Geneva! The paradoxical pitfall of Piagetian constructivism A first approach, formal and "algebraic" The two psychological attempts of Inhelder Three ways to reframing Piaget and Inhelder's inquiries Notes References 4. Intelligence: Taking the dynamics of development seriously The origin of Annette's influence on us Why intelligence? The empirical regularities in intelligence Exceptions in development The case for taking g seriously A quick sketch of the theory of the Minimal Cognitive Architecture A radically different interpretation of g The scope of our research program A dynamical model of g Extending the base model Simulations Population dataset Measures Results Discussion Notes References 5. Being a mentor References 6. Biological evolution's use of representational redescription Introduction Background: Immanuel Kant on mathematical knowledge Re-representing the precocial-altricial distinction Meta-configured genome expression Use of internal languages Piaget on possibility and necessity Overlaps Representational redescription Numbers Evolution's use of representational redescription Conclusion Notes References 7. Revisiting Rethinking Innateness: 20 years on Rethinking Innateness: Origins Rethinking Innateness: Impact Rethinking Innateness: The brain Rethinking Innateness: Acknowledged limitations Conclusion References 8. Representational redescription: The case of the early mental lexicon Introduction Lexical-semantic development Phono-lexical development Inhibition and reorganisation Phonological inhibition Semantic inhibition Mechanisms of inhibition Conclusion Note References 9. Representational redescription: An appreciation of one of Annette Karmiloff-Smith's key contributions to developmental science Bibliography 10. Prospective and longitudinal studies of the earliest origins of language learning impairments: Annette Karmiloff-Smith's ongoing legacy Prospective longitudinal studies Origins of language learning impairments Computational modelling approaches The ongoing legacy of A K-S References 11. Rethinking the attention homunculus through atypical development Probing the domain-generality of semantic distance effects via atypical cognition Beyond the attention homunculus: Theory of development, outcomes and mechanisms Concluding thoughts on moving beyond the attention homunculus: Where next? Acknowledgements References 12. What has changed in 18 years? Reflections on Ansari & Karmiloff-Smith (2002) Introduction Outstanding questions from Ansari & Karmiloff-Smith (2002): Do analog and symbolic systems of number develop independently or become progressively integrated or separated over developmental time? What developmental changes explain why young children do not have a full grasp of the meaning of counting, despite the surprising numerical abilities of preverbal infants? What factors explain the co-morbidity of dyslexia and dyscalculia? Are common brain/cognitive systems affected, are both particularly vulnerable to atypical development or is number even more at risk than reading? In children with dyscalculia, are their other abilities really normal or can we detect subtle representational impairments? Which aspects of numeracy deficits in genetic disorders are due to syndrome-specific causes and which to syndrome-general impairments? Concluding thoughts References 13. Quo vadis modularity in the 2020s? Modularity as an advantageous a priori design principle Modularity as a data-driven description of brain structure and function Final thoughts Acknowledgements Notes References 14. What can neurodevelopmental disorders tell us about developmental pathways? Realising Neuroconstructivist principles now and in the future Annette as a mentor, a collaborator and a friend Visuospatial cognition Static versus dynamic approaches to neurodevelopmental disorders The future of the dynamic approach to neurodevelopmental disorders. Cross-domain associations The future of cross-domain associations Associations can be as informative as dissociations The future of associations and dissociations Cross-syndrome comparison The future of cross-syndrome comparison Individual differences The future of individual differences Realising neuroconstructivist principles and reproducible research References 15. Age matters Annette, neuroconstructivism and me - a personal note Background Longitudinal study of early language in children with Williams syndrome and children with Down syndrome Disorders of developmental timing Age-related effects in gene expression and neurobiological processes in typical and atypical populations Age-related effects and covariant developmental changes seen in imaging studies of typical and atypical populations Behavioural studies reporting dependency relations between language and arithmetic, and the long-term impact of developmental language delay Final remarks References 16. Aligning cognitive studies in mouse models and human infants/toddlers: The case of Down syndrome Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith and LonDownS: Aligning mouse and human phenotyping How can mouse models deepen our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders? Genetic and physiological alignment Cognitive and behavioural phenotyping alignment Focus on Down syndrome Mouse models of Down syndrome Memory phenotyping of Tc1 mouse Building analogues of mouse memory tasks for infants/toddlers with Down syndrome Measure of exploration Stimuli Number of trials and timing LonDownS memory task design for human infants/toddlers with Down syndrome Participants Equipment Results Novel object recognition task Object-in-place memory task Summary Improving alignment between mouse and human studies in the current study More tasks, more delayed timepoints, and converging evidence Re-centering infant/toddler attention and the use of a mask between trials Number and positioning of stimuli Analogous developmental stages across species Future focus: Understanding individual differences in mouse models and humans Conclusions Acknowledgements Notes References 17. Sleep to remember: Typical and atypical sleep and constraints on representational development Theories of sleep and memory Sleep as a constraint on representational development A developmental approach to sleep's role Sleep in developmental disorders: Annette Karmiloff-Smith's influence Summary, conclusions, and directions for future research and theory Does sleep have a developmental trajectory? Does sleep modify neural and cognitive representations? Additional theoretical implications Acknowledgement References 18. The debate on screen time: An empirical case study in infant-directed video When and what can infants learn from video? Empirical case study in I-DTV: Methods Participants Stimuli Procedure Results Interest in the videos Looking at number Gaze similarity Measuring gaze similarity Quantifying flicker entropy Identifying faces Comparing gaze similarity as function of scene composition across both videos Gaze similarity as function of flicker entropy and faces Video C Video SI Discussion Conclusions and legacy Notes References 19. Never missing the whole picture: Intellectual development from a neuroconstructivist perspective Introduction Intelligence as a dynamic construct Putting neuroconstructivism at the disposal of intellectual development Probabilistic epigenesis Neural constructivism Interactive specialization Embodiment (perceiving and acting) Ensocialment Toward an integrated framework Concluding remarks Note References 20. Translation of scientific insights into better nappies and consumer education for healthy infant development and better sleep Understanding babies' development "See the World through Babies' Eyes" - An advertising campaign which celebrated babies' development" Better nappies through insights about babies' development combined with innovative technology Educating the public about the importance of sleep for babies' development Understanding the connection between sleep, babies' development and nappies Acknowledgements Notes Index Annette Karmiloff-Smith : scientist, mother and friend / Michael S. C. Thomas, Denis Mareschal and Victoria C. P. Knowland -- The cognitive underpinnings of relative clause comprehension in children / Susan Goldin-Meadow and Annette Karmiloff-Smith -- On the construction of the developmental problem in Karmiloff-Smith's theory / Jean-Paul Bronckart -- Intelligence : taking the dynamics of development seriously / Frank D. Baughman and Mike Anderson -- Being a mentor / Kang Lee -- Biological evolution's use of representational redescription / Aaron Sloman -- Revisiting rethinking innateness : 20 years on / Mark H. Johnson -- Representational redescription : the case of the early mental lexicon / Kim Plunkett -- Representational redescription : an appreciation of one of Annette Karmiloff-Smith's key contributions to developmental science / Jay McClelland -- Prospective and longitudinal studies of the earliest origins of language learning impairments : Annette Karmiloff-Smith's ongoing legacy / April A. Benasich and Katherine Wolfert -- Rethinking the attention homunculus through atypical development / Gaia Scerif -- What has changed in 18 years? Reflections on Ansari & Karmiloff-Smith (2002) / Daniel Ansari -- Quo vadis modularity in the 2020s? / Michael S. C. Thomas and Daniel Brady -- An analytical approach to visuospatial cognition : what can neurodevelopmental disorders tell us about developmental pathways? / Emily K. Farran -- Age matters / Yonata Levy -- Aligning cognitive studies in mouse models and human infants/toddlers : the case of Down syndrome / Hana D'Souza, Daniel Brady, Frances K. Wiseman, Mark A. Good, Michael S. C. Thomas and The LonDownS Consortium -- Sleep to remember : typical and atypical sleep and constraints on representational development / Katharine Hughes and Jamie Edgin -- The debate on screen time : an empirical case study in infant-directed video / Tim J. Smith, Parag K. Mital and Tessa M. Dekker -- Intellectual development from a neuroconstructivist perspective : never missing the whole picture / Luca Rinaldi -- Translation of scientific insights into better nappies and consumer education for healthy infant development and better sleep / Frank Wiesemann "This influential festschrift honours the legacy of Annette Kamiloff-Smith, a seminal thinker in the field of child development and a pioneer in developmental neuroscience. The current volume brings together many of the researchers, collaborators, and students who worked with Dr Kamiloff-Smith to show how her ideas have influenced and continue to influence their own research. Taking Development Seriously is essential reading for students and scholars in child development and developmental neuroscience"-- Provided by publisher