Introduction: Karmiloff-Smith from Piaget to Neuroconstructivisim a History of Ideas
Thinking Developmentally from Constructivism to Neuroconstructivism Introduction: Karmiloff-Smith from Piaget to neuroconstructivisim A history of ideas Michael S. C. Thomas Developmental Neurocognition Lab, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London Mark H. Johnson Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, and Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London Introduction Annette Karmiloff-Smith was a seminal thinker in the field of child development in a career spanning more than 45 years. She was the recipient of many awards, including the European Science Foundation Latsis Prize for Cognitive Sciences (the first woman to be awarded this prize), Fellowships of the British Academy, the Cognitive Science Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Royal Society of Arts, as well as honorary doctorates from universities across the world. She was awarded a CBE for services to cognitive development in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Annette passed away in December 2016, but she had already selected a set of papers that charted the evolution of her ideas, which are collected in this volume. At the time of her death, Annette was engaged in an innovative research project studying development and ageing in Down syndrome (DS) as a model to study the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. This multidisciplinary project, advanced by the LonDownS consortium, brought together experts in cognitive development, psychiatry, brain imaging, genetics, cellular biology, and mouse modelling. Annette’s focus in this project was to explore early development in infants and toddlers with Down syndrome. How could this inform Alzheimer’s disease? The logic is a mark of Annette’s brilliant theoretical insight.
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