Janette B. Benson is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Denver. She served for five years as the Director of the University-wide Office of Academic Assessment and co-chaired the successful University reaccreditation. Most recently she served as the Associate Dean of the Morgridge College of Education (2014-2017). Dr. Benson’s expertise is in cognitive and sensorimotor development in infancy and early childhood, and her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, The MacArthur Foundation and the March of Dimes. Dr. Benson has published several articles, book chapters and has edited or co-edited several books, including The Encyclopedia of Infancy and Early Childhood Development. She has been the recipient of several awards and honors, including the University of Denver Scholar – Teacher of the Year (1993), the 2000 CASE Colorado Professor of the Year, a Carnegie Scholar, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, member of the Board of Directors of Shortridge Academy, and the serial editor of Advances in Child Development and Behavior.

"In this volume the editor, Janette E. Benson, has brought together three different examples of scientific advance. Four of the chapters provide innovative technologies, novel data, and fresh conceptualizations. An additional two chapters afford fresh methodologies and data that - contrary to their authors’ intent - support well accepted theoretical formulations. The remaining two chapters, while providing interesting methodologies and data, use these to support questionable - and in one case potentially harmful conceptual formulations.Overall, I believe Jensen has provided a very accurate, informative, and helpful overview of contemporary research in child development and behavior." --PsyCritiques Volume 62, Issue 39

• 1. How Does Experience Shape Early Development? Considering the Role of Top-Down Mechanisms2. Applications of Dynamic Systems Theory to Cognition and Development: New Frontiers3. Mental Objects in Working Memory: Development of Basic Capacity or of Cognitive Completion?4. Why Neighborhoods (and How We Study Them) Matter for Adolescent Development5. How Children Learn to Navigate the Symbolic World of Pictures: The Importance of the Artist's Mind and Differentiating Picture Modalities6. Perspectives on Perspective Taking: How Children Think About the Minds of Others7. The Development of Tactile Perception8. The Development of Body Image and Weight Bias in Childhood