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Human faces are unique biological structures that convey a complex variety of important social messages. Even strangers can tell things from our faces – our feelings, our locus of attention, something of what we are saying, our age, sex, and ethnic group, whether they find us attractive or approachable.Face Perception, second edition, has been thoroughly updated throughout, providing an up-to-date, integrative summary by two authors who have helped to develop and shape the field. The book begins with the foundations of face perception before considering what is known about how we see different things in faces. It concludes with a discussion of how face perception relates to wider questions involving interpersonal perception and re-examines the question of what makes faces ‘special'. The importance of integrating different research perspectives and asking critical theoretical questions is emphasised throughout, to develop a distinctive point of view of the area. Written in a clear and accessible style, this is invaluable reading for all students and researchers interested in studying face perception and social cognition.

When Face Recognition Goes Wrong explores the myriad ways that humans and machines make mistakes in facial recognition. Adopting a critical stance throughout, the book explores why and how humans and machines make mistakes, covering topics including racial and gender biases, neuropsychological disorders, and widespread algorithm problems. The book features personal anecdotes alongside real-world examples to showcase the often life-changing consequences of facial recognition going wrong. These range from problems with everyday social interactions through to eyewitness identification leading to miscarriages of justice and border control passport verification.Concluding with a look to the future of facial recognition, the author asks the world's leading experts what are the big questions that still need to be answered, and can we train humans and machines to be super recognisers? This book is a must-read for anyone interested in facial recognition, or in psychology, criminal justice and law.

A must-read for anyone working within education or intellectual development, Educating the Developing Mind introduces and integrates classical and modern research with the theory of the developing mind, creating a robust theory of learning and instruction. Drawing on the theories of Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky, coupled with 40 years of empirical research, this book highlights the importance of individual and social construction in learning and proposes a robust framework and methodology for teaching and strengthening learner cognitive processes.Filled with subject-specific research, this essential book highlights how cognitive development takes place and advocates a guided constructive approach to teaching. Topics explored span from the individual learner to the wider educational community, including but not limited to: Development of the mind Personality and individuality The brain Predicting school performance Measuring and improving intelligence Problem-solving skills Language This is an essential read for anyone working within education who wants to better understand the cognitive processes involved in the developing mind and to improve learning and instruction within their school, college, or university.

This new edition of the bestselling text, Nurturing Natures, provides an indispensable synthesis of the latest scientific knowledge about children's emotional development. Integrating a wealth of both up-to-date and classical research from areas such as attachment theory, neuroscience, developmental psychology and cross-cultural studies, it weaves these into an accessible, enjoyable text that always keeps in mind children recognisable to academics, practitioners and parents. New to this edition, the book considers transgender issues, same-sex parenting, experiences of black and minority ethnic groups, well-being and the impact of mental health in relation to climate change anxiety. It looks at key developmental stages from life in the womb to the preschool years and right up until adolescence, examining how children develop language, play and memory and moral capacities. Issues of nature and nurture are addressed and the effects of different kinds of early experiences are unpicked, creating a coherent and balanced view of the developing child in context. Nurturing Natures is written by an experienced child therapist who has used a wide array of research from different disciplines to create a highly readable and scientifically trustworthy text. Equipped with key points, questions for consideration, further reading and online video chapter introductions, this book is essential reading for childcare students, teachers, social workers, health visitors, early years practitioners and those training or working in child counselling, psychiatry and mental health. Full of fascinating findings, it provides answers to many of the questions people really want to ask about the human journey from conception into adulthood.

Now in its second edition, this fundamental undergraduate textbook provides students with everything they need when studying developmental psychology.Thoroughly revised, this book breaks down key topics into easily accessible concepts and provides students with both an overview of traditional research and theory as well as an insight into the latest research findings and techniques. Taking a chronological approach, the key milestones from birth to adolescence are highlighted and clear links between changes in behaviour and developments in brain activity are made. A new chapter provides a global perspective on development, including findings regarding children's motor, cognitive, literacy, social and emotional development, as well as the importance of cross-cultural studies and their challenges. Each chapter also highlights both typical and atypical developments, as well as discussing and contrasting the effects of genetic and environmental factors.This textbook comes with a wealth of carefully updated pedagogical features, designed to help students engage with the material, including:• Learning objectives for every chapter• Key term definitions• Over 100 colour illustrations• Chapter summaries• Further reading• Suggested essay questions.A Student's Guide to Developmental Psychology is accompanied by a support material package, featuring a range of helpful supplementary resources including exclusive video clips to illustrate key developmental concepts, multiple-choice questions, flashcards and more.This book is essential reading for all undergraduate students of developmental psychology. It will also be of interest to those in education, healthcare and other subjects requiring an up-to-date and accessible overview of child development.

Developmental Science: An Advanced Textbook is the most complete and up-to-date advanced introduction to the field available today. Since its initial publication, the key purpose of this advanced textbook has been to furnish inclusive developmental perspectives on all theoretical, methodological, and substantive areas in developmental science. This eighth edition is no exception, as it continues to underscore the dynamic and exciting status of contemporary developmental science.In this eighth edition, Marc H. Bornstein and Michael E. Lamb have invited international experts to prepare original, comprehensive, and topical treatments of all major areas of developmental science; they are masterfully woven into a single coherent volume. The substantive chapters cover essentials of their main topics, with close attention paid to cultural, lifespan, and applied perspectives. Many chapters in this eighth edition are new, and those carried forward from the seventh edition have been extensively revised. This volume therefore represents faithfully the current status of scholarly efforts in all aspects of developmental science.Ideal for advanced undergraduate and introductory graduate courses, this advanced textbook is accompanied by two sets of supplementary materials: pedagogy files for students include chapter outlines, things to think about before reading the chapters, glossaries, and suggested readings; and ancillary files for instructors include a PowerPoint deck of tables and figures, classroom assignments, essay questions, multiple-choice questions, and short-answer questions.

The Science of People and Office Design: Planning for Thinking, Discussing and Achieving has been written for practitioners who would like to apply evidence-based and human-centric design principles to office and workplace design. Practitioner-researcher disconnects often arise due to a lack of meaningful connection between their professional worlds. This book seeks to rectify this disconnect and make it clear that research can significantly affect the likelihood that design projects achieve the objectives outlined in their briefs, and that practitioners need to have a real influence on research conducted.The book consists of 16 chapters,each grouped into three major sections, with an overview chapter and a conclusion drawn together by the editors. Each chapter addresses a real-world workplace design-related issue. The first part of each chapter presents the editors'overview of the problem in practice and the objectives that must be achieved via design solutions. The second portion of each chapter presents peer-reviewed research related to the chapter's topic, written by a researcher focused on practical issues. The final part of each chapter is written by a workplace design practitioner and details their efforts to resolve the section's real-world workplace design-related concern by applying relevant peer-reviewed research.The book is aimed at professionals working in business, interior design, architecture, surveying, facilities management, building services engineering, human resources and psychology who are key stakeholders in the design and delivery of modern office spaces. Postgraduates studying design, architecture, engineering, facilities management, environmental psychology and wellbeing will also find the book useful.

Inspired by overtly negative coverage by the Western mainstream press of Muslims in particular, and minorities in general, this book asks: Why are negative narratives and depictions of Muslims and other minorities so hard to change?News reports about Islam and Muslims commonly relate stories that discuss terrorism, violence or other unwelcome or irrational behaviour, or the lack of integration and compatibility of Muslims and Islam with Western values and society. Yet there is little research done on how studies on media reports about minorities seemingly fail to improve the situation. Combining empirical research with a structural analysis of the media industry, this volume presents evidence for the maligned representation of minorities by media corporations, analysing why negative narratives persist and outlining how these can be effectively transformed.It is an outstanding resource for students and scholars of media, religion, culture, sociology, and Islamic studies, and is also of benefit for journalists, media representatives, and activists looking to effect change for minority representation in the media industry specifically or in society at large.

This unique textbook explores core cognitive psychology topics from an innovative new perspective, focusing on key real-world issues to show how we understand and experience the world. The book examines compelling topics such as creativity, problem-solving, reasoning, rationality and language, all within the context of modern 21st century life. Each chapter demonstrates how this vibrant and constantly evolving discipline is at the heart of some of the biggest issues facing us all today. The last chapter discusses the future of cognitive psychology, which includes guidance on conducting rigorous, replicable research and how to use skills from cognitive psychology to be an effective student. Packed with pedagogical features, each chapter includes boxed examples of cognitive psychology in the real world and engaging ‘try it yourself'features. Each chapter also includes objectives, a range of illustrative figures, chapter summaries, key readings and a glossary for ease of use. The book is fully supported by original online resources for students and instructors. Offering a new model for the study of cognitive psychology that brings the subject alive, the book is essential reading for all students studying psychology and related disciplines.

Development in Infancy reflects many new discoveries that have transformed our understanding of infants and their place in human development, with an emphasis on 21st century research. Organized topically, the book covers physical, perceptual, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development, in addition to describing theories of development, contexts of development, research methods, and implications of research in infancy for social policies and interventions. Key issues in infancy studies—those having to do with how nature and nurture transact and with interrelations among diverse domains of development—are woven throughout the book. The text also emphasizes infancy as a unique stage of the life cycle.The new edition features new key point summaries at the end of most sections, definitions of boldfaced terms in the margins, and invitations to engage in retrieval practice at the end of each chapter. Each chapter also features Set for Life? text boxes that explore events and developments in infancy that reverberate in later development. This edition also features a new full-color design and over 100 figures, tables, and photos. The text is written in a clear and engaging style and is approachable for students with varying academic backgrounds and experiences.Development in Infancy is the authoritative text for undergraduate and graduate courses on infant development or early child development taught in departments of psychology, child development, education, nursing, and social work. The text is supported by Support Material that features a robust set of instructor and student resources.

This accessible yet scholarly book focuses on the study of the psychology of lying and misrepresentation, exploring the analysis of the cognitive and neural mechanisms that allow the construction of a false response, both consciously and as a consequence of a brain injury. Drawing on perspectives from experimental, neuropsychological and developmental psychology as well as philosophy, the book examines the mechanisms that allow us all to learn to lie and use lies for different ends and in everyday life.The Psychology of Lying and Misrepresentations opens with an introductory chapter on lies and the processes underlying their production. It goes on to examine our innate desire to believe, and the clinical and technical methods used to determine whether someone is lying or telling the truth. The book takes a closer look at false memories and self-deception and the reasons behind their establishment and success in an individual's life. It then moves on from focusing on the individual to discuss the lies directed towards the collective and puts forth the questions around false news and its sustenance over time. The concluding chapters focus on memory disorders resulting from brain damage and false beliefs resulting from an expression of functional damage to specific neural systems.This book will be of value to researchers in a range of disciplines interested in all aspects of lying, deception, and misrepresentation, as well as experts in forensic study.

Cognitive Development and Cognitive Neuroscience: The Learning Brain is a thoroughly revised edition of the bestselling Cognitive Development. The new edition of this full-colour textbook has been updated with the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, going beyond Piaget and traditional theories to demonstrate how emerging data from the brain sciences require a new theoretical framework for teaching cognitive development, based on learning. Building on the framework for teaching cognitive development presented in the first edition, Goswami shows how different cognitive domains such as language, causal reasoning and theory of mind may emerge from automatic neural perceptual processes. Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Development integrates principles and data from cognitive science, neuroscience, computer modelling and studies of non-human animals into a model that transforms the study of cognitive development to produce both a key introductory text and a book which encourages the reader to move beyond the superficial and gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Cognitive Development and Cognitive Neuroscience is essential for students of developmental and cognitive psychology, education, language and the learning sciences. It will also be of interest to anyone training to work with children.

Our elaborate market exchange system owes its existence not to our calculating brain or insatiable self-centeredness, but rather to our sophisticated and nuanced human sociality and to the inherent rationality built into our emotions. The modern economic system is helped a lot more than hindered by our innate social instincts that support our remarkable capacity for building formal and informal institutions. The book integrates the growing body of experimental evidence on human nature scattered across a variety of disciplines from experimental economics to social neuroscience into a coherent and original narrative about the extent to which market (or impersonal exchange) relations are reflective of the basic human sociality that was originally adapted to a more tribal existence. An accessible resource, this book will appeal to students of all areas of economics, including Behavioral Economics and Neuro-Economics, Microeconomics, and Political Economy.

Numerical Cognition: The Basics provides an understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms that enable us to perceive, process, and memorize numerical information.Starting from basic numerical competencies that humans share with other species, the book explores the mental coding of numbers and their neural representation. It explains the strategies of mental calculation, their pitfalls and their development, as well as the developmental steps children make while learning about numbers. The book gradually builds our understanding of the underlying mental processes of numeracy and concludes with an insightful examination of the diagnosis, etiology and treatment of dyscalculia.Written in an accessible manner, the book summarizes and critically evaluates the major psychological explanations for various empirical phenomena in numerical cognition. Containing a wealth of student-friendly features including end of chapter summaries, informative figures, further reading lists, and links to relevant websites, Numerical Cognition: The Basics is an essential starting point for anybody new to the field.

The last decade has seen a rapid growth in our understanding of the cognitive systems that underlie mathematical learning and performance, and an increased recognition of the importance of this topic. This book showcases international research on the most important cognitive issues that affect mathematical performance across a wide age range, from early childhood to adulthood. The book considers the foundational competencies of nonsymbolic and symbolic number processing before discussing arithmetic, conceptual understanding, individual differences and dyscalculia, algebra, number systems, reasoning and higher-level mathematics such as formal proof. Drawing on diverse methodology from behavioural experiments to brain imaging, each chapter discusses key theories and empirical findings and introduces key tasks used by researchers. The final chapter discusses challenges facing the future development of the field of mathematical cognition and reviews a set of open questions that mathematical cognition researchers should address to move the field forward. This book is ideal for undergraduate or graduate students of psychology, education, cognitive sciences, cognitive neuroscience and other academic and clinical audiences including mathematics educators and educational psychologists.

In the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts present career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, and their major practical theoretical contributions.This influential volume of papers, chosen by Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith before she passed away, recognises her major contribution to the field of developmental psychology. Published over a 40-year period, the papers included here address the major themes that permeate through Annette's work: from typical to atypical development, genetics and computation modelling approaches, and neuroimaging of the developing brain. A newly written introduction by Michael S. C. Thomas and Mark H. Johnson gives an overview of her research journey and contextualises her selection of papers in relation to changes in the field over time.Thinking Developmentally from Constructivism to Neuroconstructivism: Selected Works of Annette Karmiloff-Smith is of great interest to researchers and postgraduates in child development specialising in atypical development, developmental disorders, and developmental neuroscience. It also has appeal to clinical neuropsychologists and rehabilitation professionals.

The Psychology of Human Social Development provides a comprehensive introduction to the essential core topics and exciting new findings in this thriving field of developmental psychology.Following a thematic approach, the book looks at key topics in social development in childhood and adolescence, including personality development and research methods, taking the reader from first principles to an advanced understanding. The book explores socio-emotional development and social learning, as well as the history of thinking, and the evolutionary roots of social development, whilst also providing a clear balance between nature and nurture approaches. Taylor and Workman's user-friendly writing style accommodates readers with no previous knowledge of the subject area whilst exploring the most up-to-date theories and research from various areas of psychology which have gained relevance to developmental psychology.Featuring student-friendly pedagogy throughout, including end-of-chapter summaries, further reading recommendations and questions for discussion, The Psychology of Human Social Development is essential reading for undergraduates on social development or developmental psychology courses and relevant for related fields such as education, gender studies and nursing.

Interest in the human mind is a centuries-old fascination, dating back to Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes. While the theories proposed about the human mind have since advanced and evolved, the fascination remains. Growing Minds is a unique and interdisciplinary work that guides the reader through an examination of the human mind's nature, performance, lifespan, and variations.The book sets out to answer a variety of questions: What are the cognitive processes underlying intelligence? What is general and what is specific in intelligence? What is stable and what is changing in intelligence as children grow older? Why do individuals differ in intelligence, and are differences genetically determined? How is intelligence and intellectual development related to the genome and the brain? How is intelligence related to personality? Can intelligence be enhanced by specific interventions? The text is organised into three parts: the first provides a summary and evaluation of research conducted on the human mind by experimental cognitive psychology, differential psychology, and developmental psychology. The second presents an overarching theory of the growing mind, showing how mind and intelligence are at the crossroads of nature and nurture; and the third assesses the relationship between education and intelligence.This book is the result of decades of extensive research and culminates in the proposal of a new overarching and integrated theory of the developing mind. For the first time, research is gathered and combined to form a comprehensive concept and fulfil the need for a fresh, integrative paradigm which both asks and answers questions about the human mind from a multi-faceted perspective.

From an infant's first grasp of quantity to Einstein's theory of relativity, the human experience of number has intrigued researchers for centuries. Numeracy and mathematics have played fundamental roles in the development of societies and civilisations, and yet there is an essential mystery to these concepts, evidenced by the fear many people still feel when confronted by apparently simple sums. Including perspectives from anthropology, education and psychology, The Nature and Development of Mathematics addresses three core questions: Is maths natural? What is the impact of our culture and environment on mathematical thinking? And how can we improve our mathematical ability? Examining the cognitive processes that we use, the origins of these skills and their cultural context, and how learning and teaching can be supported in the classroom, the book contextualises each issue within the wider field, arguing that only by taking a cross-disciplinary perspective can we fully understand what it means to be numerate, as well as how we become numerate in our modern world. This is a unique collection including contributions from a range of renowned international researchers. It will be of interest to students and researchers across cognitive psychology, cultural anthropology and educational research.

Due to the strong sense among the student community of belonging to a specific social group, student revolts have been an integral part of the university throughout its history. Ironically, since the Middle Ages, the advantageous position of students in society as part of the social elite undoubtedly enforced their critical approach. This edited collection studies the role of students as a critical mass within their urban context and society through examples of student revolts from the foundation period of universities in the Middle Ages until today, covering the whole European continent. A dominant theme is the large degree of continuity visible in student revolts across space and time, especially concerning the (rebellious) attitudes of and criticisms directed towards students. Too often, each generation thinks they are the first. Moreover, student revolts are definitely not always of a progressive kind, but instead they are often characterized by a tension between conservative ambitions (e.g. the protection of their own privileges or nostalgia for the good old days) and progressive ideas. Particular attention is paid to the use of symbols (like flags, caps, etc.), rituals and special traditions within these revolts in order to bring the students'voice back to the fore.

Processes of multi-scalar regional urbanization are occurring worldwide. Such processes are clearly distinguishable from those of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries due to the shifting concepts of both the city and the metropolis. International literature highlights how what we have historically associated with the idea of cities has long been subjected to consistent reconfiguration, which involves stressing some of the typical features of the idea of'cityness'.Post-Metropolitan Territories: Looking for a New Urbanity is the product of a research project funded by the Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research (MIUR). It constitutes a thorough overview of a country that is one of Europe's most diverse in terms of regional development and performance: Italy. This book brings together case studies of a number of Italian cities and their hinterlands and looks at new forms of urbanization, exploring themes of sustainability, industrialization, de-industrialization, governance, city planning and quality of life. This volume will be of great interest to academics and students who study regional development, economic geography and urban studies, as well as civil servants and policymakers in the field of spatial planning, urban policy, territorial policies and governance.

This volume explores how technology-supported learning environments can incorporate physical activity and interactive experiences in formal education. It presents cutting-edge research and design work on a new generation of'body-centric'technologies such as wearable body sensors, GPS tracking devices, interactive display surfaces, video game controller devices, and humanlike avatars. Contributors discuss how and why each of these technologies can be used in service of learning within K-12 classrooms and at home, in museums and online. Citing examples of empirical evidence and specific implementation, this timely and critical volume examines how body responsive technologies are being used within the educational community to advance the next generation of educational technology.

Metropolitan Problems is the end-product of one of the most dynamic research programmes of its kind ever conceived and executed. The book, which took three years to complete, represents the culmination of a two year study that was highlighted by a conference held in toronto in 1967. In the early 1960s, the bureau of Municipal Research (in metropolitan Toronto) decided that a significant way for it to celebrate Canada's centennial would be to initiate a systematic international study of the world's metropolitan areas. The study, with the official cooperation of the United Nations, was designed to produce positive insights into the methods of coping with the interlocking sets of problems associated with the expansion of the modern metropolis.Twelve papers on various aspects of metropolitan problems were commissioned from an international body of experts. Working with these experts were study groups drawn from forty major metropolitan centres throughout the world. After making exhaustive studies of their respective urban centres, the groups reported their findings and submitted detailed briefs through their representatives at the conference. Throughout the symposium, a conscious effort was made to examine single aspects of social, economic and physical change within the overall perspective of the metropolis. The book reflects this approach.Each chapter directs attention to specific problems of the metropolis, problems resulting from the contradiction between accelerating technology and our ability to cope with the incredible pace and rate of change. Together they prove that, despite differences in technology, culture, and political and social matters, the major urban areas of the world do have much in common. Emerging tendencies can be analysed and corrective and preventative measures be made through comparative analysis.This book was first published in 1970.

Urban Complexity and Spatial Strategies develops important new relational and institutionalist approaches to policy analysis and planning, of relevance to all those with an interest in cities and urban areas.Well-illustrated chapters weave together conceptual development, experience and implications for future practice and address the challenge of urban and metropolitan planning and development.Useful for students, social scientists and policy makers, Urban Complexity and Spatial Strategies offers concepts and detailed cases of interest to those involved in policy development and management, as well as providing a foundation of ideas and experiences, an account of the place-focused practices of governance and an approach to the analysis of governance dynamics. For those in the planning field itself, this book re-interprets the role of planning frameworks in linking spatial patterns to social dynamics with twenty-first century relevance.

Reflecting recent changes in the way cognition and the brain are studied, this thoroughly updated fourth edition of this bestselling textbook provides a comprehensive and student-friendly guide to cognitive neuroscience. Jamie Ward provides an easy-to-follow introduction to neural structure and function, as well as all the key methods and procedures of cognitive neuroscience, with a view to helping students understand how they can be used to shed light on the neural basis of cognition.The book presents a comprehensive overview of the latest theories and findings in all the key topics in cognitive neuroscience, including vision, hearing, attention, memory, speech and language, numeracy, executive function, social and emotional behavior and developmental neuroscience. Throughout, case studies, newspaper reports, everyday examples and studentfriendly pedagogy are used to help students understand the more challenging ideas that underpin the subject.New to this edition: Increased focus on the impact of genetics on cognition New coverage of the cutting-edge field of connectomics Coverage of the latest research tools including tES and fNIRS and new methodologies such as multi-voxel pattern analysis in fMRI research Additional content is also included on network versus modular approaches, brain mechanisms of hand-eye coordination, neurobiological models of speech perception and production and recent models of anterior cingulate function Written in an engaging style by a leading researcher in the field and presented in full color including numerous illustrative materials, this book will be invaluable as a core text for undergraduate modules in cognitive neuroscience. It can also be used as a key text on courses in cognition, cognitive neuropsychology, biopsychology or brain and behavior. Those embarking on research will find it an invaluable starting point and reference.This textbook is supported by an extensive companion website for students and instructors, including lectures by leading researchers, links to key studies and interviews, interactive multiple-choice questions and flashcards of key terms.

Based on the Annual Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society, Biology and Knowledge Revisited focuses on the classic issue of the relationship between nature and nurture in cognitive and linguistic development, and their neurological substrates.Contributors trace the history of ideas concerning the relationship between evolution and development, and bring powerful new conceptual systems and research data to bear on understanding the problem of experience-contingent brain development and evolution. They focus on processes of phenotype construction - which fill the gap between genes and behavior - and demonstrate that evolutionary psychological models of innate mental modules are incompatible with what is known about these processes. This book presents exciting new approaches to the development and evolution of cognitive and linguistic abilities.Returning to the broad evolutionary theme of a previous meeting, the symposium focused on specifically constructivist approaches to neurogenesis and language acquisition, and their evolution. It was organized around ideas about the relationship between development and evolution raised in Piaget's books. Research in this arena has yielded cutting-edge insight into behavioral influences on brain plasticity.Two of its subthemes run throughout - a critique of modularity models popular among evolutionary psychologies and the prescient yet flawed nature of Piaget's critique of the modern synthesis of evolution. As a result, Biology and Knowledge Revisited is intended for developmental psychologists, psycholinguists, biological anthropologists, evolutionary psychologists, and philosophers of science.

Research on the development of human infants has revealed remarkable capacities in recent years. Instead of stressing the limitations of the newborn, the modern approach is now more optimistically based on an assessment of the adaptive capabilities of the infant. Innate endowment, coupled with interaction with the physical and social environment, enables a developmental transition from processes deeply rooted in early perception and action to the cognitive and language abilities typical of the toddler.; This book reviews a number of issues in early human development. It includes a reconceptualization of the role of perception at the origins of development, a reconciliation of psychophysical and ecological approaches to early face perception, and building bridges between biological and psychological aspects of development in terms of brain structure and function. Topics covered include basic exploratory processes of early visual systems in early perception and action; face perception in newborns, species typical aspects of human communication, imitation, perception of the phonetic structure of speech, origins of the pointing gesture, handedness origins and development, theoretical contributions on perception and cognition, implicit and explicit knowledge in babies; sensory-motor coordination and cognition, information processing and cognition, perception, habituation and the development of intelligence from infancy.