Construction of the Mental: From the ‘Cognitive Revolution’ to the Study of Development

Developmental theorizing in psychology is shown to be based on axiomatic grounds that are antithetical to those of ‘the cognitive revolution’. Therefore it is not surprising that cognitivism has had a very limited impact upon our knowledge of developmental processes. Instead, it has had curious ‘side-effects'-it has kept the investigators' attention away from the processes of development, and has fortified the historically strong emphasis on the study of those psychological functions that have already developed. The question of how cognitive processes emerge, develop and reach their fully functional states has been replaced by the question of whether persons (at different age levels) can be shown to ‘possess’ specific mental functions that are adaptive in specific task settings.