Connectionist and Dynamic Systems Approaches to Development: On the Cusp of a New Grand Theory or Still Too Distributed?

儿童发展的研究一直是围绕着“大问题”和“宏大”的理论思想来组织的。在这种背景下，20世纪90年代出现了两种新的理论观点-动态系统理论和联结主义的发展方法。根据这两种理论，儿童是逐步发展的;也就是说，儿童能力的每一次变化都为下一次发展奠定了基础。重要的是，这个循序渐进的过程并不是由基因或“成熟”预先指定的;相反，发展是随着每个孩子找到自己独特的途径而出现的。这是自然的，因为发展是许多因素共同作用的产物，这些因素共同产生行为变化-大脑变化，身体变化，环境变化等。例如，动态系统理论被用来解释运动技能的变化，如达到，爬行和行走，而联结主义被用来解释认知能力的发展，如语言。因此，目前还不清楚这些方法之间的确切关系。 约翰·斯宾塞博士组织了一个为期3天的会议，召集了一批与每种方法有关的核心学者，以确定这是两个独立的发展理论还是一个宏大的理论。为了加强这一对话，发言者从一个相关的观点-发展系统理论-也将参加，因为将第二组学者与一般专业知识的发展和认知心理学。此外，将有一大群研究生出席，部分资金来自会议旅行奖。牛津大学出版社将出版一本总结会议成果的编辑书籍。这次会议和出版的这本书可能会对发展心理学领域做出重大贡献，因为它们将澄清该领域两个最有前途的新理论之间的关系。更广泛地说，这次会议的结果可能会影响儿童的福祉，因为发展的大理论塑造了人们对儿童的看法。这些理论影响着国家政策、教育课程和养育子女，形成了一个真实的儿童学习和成长的框架。因此，关于这两个新的理论竞争者--联结主义和动态系统理论--的争论和讨论有可能产生深远的影响。

The study of child development has always been organized around "big issues" and "grand" theoretical ideas. In this milieu, two new theoretical perspectives emerged in the 1990's - dynamic systems theory and connectionist approaches to development. According to both theories, children develop step-by-step; that is, each change in the child's ability sets the stage for the next developments. Importantly, this step-by-step process is not specified in advance by genes or "maturation"; rather, development emerges as each child finds his/her own unique pathway. This is natural because development is a product of many factors coming together to produce behavioral change - brain changes, bodily changes, environmental changes, etc. Although these two perspectives share many concepts, they have been applied to very different phenomena. For instance, dynamic systems theory has been used to explain changes in motor skills such as reaching, crawling, and walking, while connectionism has been used to explain the development of cognitive abilities such as language. As such, it is unclear exactly how these approaches relate to one another. Dr. John Spencer has organized a 3-day conference to bring together a set of core scholars affiliated with each approach to determine whether these are two separate theories of development or one grand theory. To sharpen this dialogue, speakers from a related viewpoint - developmental systems theory - will also participate, as will a second group of scholars with general expertise in developmental and cognitive psychology. In addition, there will be a large group of graduate students in attendance, funded in part by conference travel awards. An edited book summarizing results of the conference will be published by Oxford University Press. The conference and published book are likely to make a major contribution to the field of developmental psychology in that they will clarify the relationship between two of the most promising new theories in the field. More broadly, results of this conference are likely to impact the well-being of children because grand theories of development shape how people think about children. These theories influence national policy, educational curricula, and parenting, forming a framework within which real children learn and grow. Thus, debate and discussion about these two new theoretical contenders - connectionism and dynamic systems theory - have the potential for far-reaching influences.