John Flavell’s, Patricia Miller’s, and Scott Miller’s book, Cognitive Development: Fourth Edition joins The Origins of Human Nature, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and The Scientist in the Crib for one particular professor. Before I took any of his classes, a fellow graduate student tried to warn me off of this academic. I am glad I did not listen. Studying under a professor who fully disagrees with you, fully demands good reasons for that disagreement, and fully acknowledges them once given, is bracing good fun.

Like Scientist in the Crib before it, Cognitive Development focuses mostly on young children and serves to put later readings in context. The book is largely uncontroversial, though like Razib when critiquing the SSSM, the focus on cultural as opposed to genetic diversity is frustrating after a while. Part 9, over the section “Questions and Problems,” was by far the most fun to write.

Enjoy!

Cognitive Development, a tdaxp series
1. Introduction
2. Infant Perception
3. Infant Cognition
4. Representation and Concepts
5. Reasoning and Problem Solving
6. Social Cognition
7. Memory
8. Language
9. Questions and Problems
10. Bibliography