The Social Context of Cognitive Development

Mary Gauvain has an interesting and important theory about what causes developmental changes in children, and she sets it out in her new book convincingly and with great verve. Her theory is that the underlying factor that produces cognitive developmental change is social interaction, and she documents this claim with an impressively wide range of evidence. --Peter Bryant, PhD, FRS, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

This is an outstanding summary of the social influences on children's thinking. Gauvain weaves cross-cultural and cognitive developmental research into a single tapestry that shows how children learn, remember, and solve problems in their everyday activities. She reviews major theories of cognitive development and uses activity theory as a framework to synthesize sociocognitive research. The book will be appreciated by students because it is coherent, readable, and up to date. --Scott Paris, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan

This book provides a valuable integration of literatures that point to the importance of social context as a mechanism of cognitive change. In examining the role of social influences in the development of attention, memory, problem solving, and planning, Gauvain manages to integrate social interactional accounts with other efforts to identify mechanisms of development, such as Piagetian and information-processing approaches. She reviews relevant research as well as incorporating memoirs of notable people to illustrate varying contexts of cognitive development. This book will be a valuable supplementary text for undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology, child development, and education. --Barbara Rogoff, PhD, Foundation Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

-