Research on the processes of change during the transition from middle childhood to adolescence has been a relatively neglected area of scholarship until recently. This volume, features prominent researchers who provide integrative accounts of their research programs, focusing on processes of physical, social, and cognitive change during this important transition period in development. Also included in this volume is an overview, discussion, and critical analysis of core conceptual issues in the study of adolescent transition.

This volume covers the 22nd Annual Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology. The theme of the conference was the use of a systematic approach to the study of development. An analysis of systems theory, its applications to the study of development, its benefits, and its drawbacks are considered. The contributors, among the leaders in this field, discuss the application of systems concepts to the analysis of core issues in areas as diverse as motor and social development.

One of the central problems in the study of modern cognition is the degree to which higher cognition is modularized: that is, how much are higher functions carried out by domain-specific, specialized, cognitive subsystems, rather than a highly general cognitive learning and inferring device? To date, ideas and proposals about modularity have been best developed in the study of vision and grammar. In the present volume, the usefulness of approaches employing modularity and domain specificity are further explored in papers on the development of biological thought, word meaning, symbols, and...

There has been a burgeoning of interest in the relation between biological development--particularly brain development--and behavioral development. This shift in focus does a better job of reflecting the whole child and all of development. Not surprisingly, many of the individuals who are concerned with the theoretical side of brain-behavior relations are also concerned with the more practical side. The chapters that comprise this 31st volume of the Minnesota Symposium series collectively capture the subtle dance between the biological and behavioral aspects of early adversity as it...

This is the 33rd volume in the Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology held in October 2002. The symposium was held to honor the scientific and mentoring contributions of Anne Danielson Pick and Herbert L. Pick, Jr.--two longtime and beloved professors of the Institute of Child Development. It focused on "Action as an Organizer of Learning and Development" and integrated the best and most innovative research on the role of action in perceiving and understanding. Taken together, the book captures the intellectual excitement that characterized the 33rd symposium and appeals to developmental...