The authors share the belief that there is great potential for developmental science in bringing the ideas of Niche Construction Theory (NCT), as developed in evolutionary biology, into conversation with Vygotskian-inspired theories such as cultural-historical and activity theories, distributed cognition, and embodied cognition, although from…

This commentary traces discussions of psychological differences and deficits from the mid-1950s to the current day, positioning the disciplinary discussions in the social-historical context in which they took place. The challenges of assessing diagnoses of deficit and the potential harms that result when misdiagnosis is implemented as social…

Uses discourse and schema theories to discuss cultural behavior in the context of a dinner party with place cards as the cultural artifacts. A view of culture as ideal/material artifacts is presented as a reformulation of the older notions of the cultural-historical theories. (MMU)

It is urged that investigators lay aside demonstrations of the existence of mediation in young children as focus of research, substituting a search for the conditions of its occurrence. (Authors)

Taken together, these five studies using structurally different kinds of conceptual problems provide evidence for qualitative developmental and cultural differences in classificatory behavior. (Authors/CB)

Reviews four books: (1) "On Intelligence. . .More or Less: A Bioecological Treatise on Intellectual Development" (Stephen J. Ceci); (2) "Knowing Children: Experiments in Conversation and Cognition" (Michael Siegal); (3) "Adolescents and Their Families: Paths of Ego Development" (S. T. Hauser and others); and (4) "Adolescence: An Anthropological…

A critical approach to the application of research by developmental psychologists is proposed, using a concept of culture derived from agricultural metaphors in the English language. The approach is illustrated in a study of afterschool activities for California children. (SLD)