Publisher's Synopsis
An important part of cognitive development is coming to think inculturally normative ways. Children learn the right names forobjects, proper functions for tools, appropriate ways tocategorize, and the rules for games. In each of these cases, whatmakes a given practice normative is not naturally given. There isnot necessarily any objectively better or worse way to do any ofthese things. Instead, what makes them correct is that people agreeon how they should be done, and each of these practices thereforehas an important conventional basis.
The chapters in this volume highlight the fact that successfulparticipation in practices of language, cognition, and play dependson children's ability to acquire representations that other membersof their social worlds share. Each of these domains poses problemsof identifying normative standards and achieving coordinationacross agents. This volume brings together scholars from diverseareas in cognitive development to consider the psychologicalmechanisms supporting the use and acquisition of conventionalknowledge.
This is the 115th volume of the quarterly report series NewDirections for Child and Adolescent Development.
