Dynamic systems and cognitive development

Here is an interesting article, a 20-year survey of dynamic systems applied to cognitive development. A few excerpts:

"A key characteristic of systems metatheory that both approaches share is the rejection of classical dichotomies that have pervaded psychology for centuries. [...] In their place, systems metatheory takes the 'organism in context' as its central unit of study."

"Four theoretical viewpoints have disappeared from the Handbook [of Child Psychology: Theoretical Models of Human Development] over time: nativism, cognitive and information processing, symbolic approaches, and Piaget’s theory. Of course, scholars still actively pursue all of these perspectives. It is notable, however, that they have something in common—an attempt to carve up behavior and development into parts (broad parts like nature versus nurture; specific parts like cognitive modules; or temporal partitions such as stages of processing or stages of development). Systems metatheory rejects this inherent partitioning."


"Systems are self-organizing. [...] Within the DS perspective, organization and structure come 'for free' from the nonlinear and time-dependent interactions that emerge from this multilevel and high-dimensional mix. Thus, there is no need to build pattern into the system ahead of time because the system has an intrinsic tendency to create pattern."