Learning and Dynamics

Almost all theories of human development acknowl-edge some role for experience-dependent changes in be-havior, representation, and thinking with age. Because of the legacy of antipathy toward the behaviorists, these experience-dependent changes have not always been de-scribed as learning. It is clear, however, that learning does play a central role in development and that learn-ing in development is not limited to associative learning. In our studies of infant learning we have a special in-terest in how the mechanisms of learning interact with the demands of development. We must rst recognize that the learning mechanisms used during development are probably varied and de-pendent on the situational context. Some situations involve perceptual learning, others involve learning t