Moving toward a grand theory of development: in memory of Esther Thelen

This paper is in memory of Esther Thelen, who passed away while President of the Society for Research in Child Development. A survey of Esther Thelen's career reveals a trajectory from early work on simple movements like stepping, to the study of goal-directed reaching, to work on the embodiment of cognition, and, ultimately, to a grand theory of development--dynamic systems theory. Four central concepts emerged during her career: (1) a new emphasis on time; (2) the proposal that behavior is softly assembled from the interaction of multiple subsystems; (3) the embodiment of perception, action, and cognition; and (4) a new respect for individuality. Esther Thelen communicated these ideas to scientists and practitioners alike, so the ultimate benefactors of her work were children.     

The role of the printed answer in programmed instruction

Using a variety of programmed materials, this series of studies showed that students observed available answers in the program far less than 100% of the time. Answer observing was found to be correlated with student error on the related frame. The view that the printed answer in a program is always a reinforcer for the preceding response(s) is severely questioned.     

Formal theories clarify the complex: Generalizing a neural process account of the interaction of visual exploration and word learning in infancy

The interaction of visual exploration and auditory processing is central to early cognitive development, supporting object discrimination, categorization, and word learning. Research has shown visual–auditory interactions to be complex, created from multiple processes and changing over multiple timescales. To better understand these interactions, we generalize a formal neural process model of early word learning to two studies examining how words impact 9- to 22-month-olds' attention to novelty. These simulations clarify the origin and nature of previously demonstrated effects of labels on visual exploration and the basis of mutual exclusivity effects in word learning. We use our findings to discuss key questions for this special section: what makes a good theory and how should formal theories interface with empirical paradigms and findings?