This article elaborates and defends a thesis prominent in my recent book, "The Formation of Reason"; namely, that "a human being gets to be free in the distinctive way that human beings are free through the acquisition of second nature". My treatment of this thesis in The Formation of Reason is much influenced by the philosophy of John McDowell.…

In the author's opinion Nietzsche has adopted the three Aristotelian factors, i.e., logic, learning and experience, showing the nihilistic element in the educational system of his days. By means of the term "formal education", Nietzsche implies the education comprises the development of the intellectual faculties of the learner. According to…

More than 30 years since Hannah Arendt's death in 1975 at the age of 69, her novel theory of the public realm continues to attract attention and debate. In this article, the author contributes to this discussion by drawing on Arendt's theory of public life to investigate the space of youth media production in relation to questions of democratic…

Addresses claims by Ackles and Karrer (1991) that the neurophysiological evidence used to support Dannemiller and Banks' selective adaptation model of early infant habituation (1983) fails to do so. Some evidence that has emerged since 1983 shows that some aspects of habituation during early infancy cannot be explained by appealing to selective…

Relates Kastenbaum's (1981) concept of habituation as model of human aging to two areas of environment-aging research: psychological control and environmental comprehension. Considers possible causal and mediating links between control and habituation and explores impact of habituation on environmental perception, cognition, and appraisal.…

Replies to argument presenting evidence against a model of habituation during early infancy which was based on the selective adaptation of feature detectors. (Author/BB)

Describes a study that examined the effects of various computer reinforcement responses, including graphics and/or sound, on students' attentiveness to the program. Implications for educational software design are discussed. (CLB)

This editorial proposes that the dependent variables that predict childhood intelligence quotient (IQ) from habituation and recognition memory assessments made during infancy may primarily reflect individual differences in rate of information processing. Inhibition may be a stable thread in mental development. (Author/SLD)

Rejects the neuronal fatigue, or selective adaptation, hypothesis of young infant habituation. Holds that studies cited by Dannemiller and Banks do not support the inferences of selective adaptation. Rejects the hypothetical neurophysiological mechanism of neuronal fatigue. Proposes that studies do not indicate that young infants' visual cortical…

The articles in this collection consider one very interesting puzzle of development: U-shaped developmental functions. At some point during development, an organism might exhibit what seems like a regression from its expected developmental trajectory and, according to continuity models of development, this is aberrant. In this special issue,…

It has been 20 years since Bever's (1982) and Strauss and Stavy's (1982) books on U-shaped functions in human development were published. The three target articles in this issue describe several old and new U-shaped functions and new theoretical explanations for their existence. In this article, the authors will comment on two aspects of U-shaped…