Jeanne D. Day – författare

This volume address the similarities and differences in the cognitive processes that characterize children at the extremes of human talent. Its purpose is to assess the adequacy with which theories derived for normal children also account for performance and processes variability among retarded, learning disabled, and gifted children; and to advance the analaysis of quantative versus qualitative differences in cognition by focusing on more extreme contrasts than have traditionally been examined in the developmental literature.

This volume, much like its companion text Cognition in Special Children, focuses on intellectual and motivational processes that characterize individuals at the extremes of human talent. The aim is to understand more about exceptional children: how they are like and unlike other children, and what intellectual and motivational processes best explain their delayed or accelerated performance. The link between exceptionality and intelligence is examined from three perspectives: the role of intelligence theories and tests in the diagnosis and classification of retarded, learning disabled, and gifted children and adolescents; the use of intelligence theory to guide educational programming; and the importance of special populations for constructing, revising, and assessing new models of intelligence.

One of the more promising recent developments in the study of social cognition has been the cross-pollination of ideas from the fields of developmental and social psychology. Many social psychologists have come to the conclusion that a complete account of social cognitive phenomena must include not (l!1ly detailed analyses of those processes in their adult form but also an understanding of their origins and development in children. Likewise, in the last ten years psychologists involved in social developmental research have shown an increasing interest in theories and research generated in the adult social cognition literature. Surely among the more important cognitive phenomena to be studied in social development are those that are related to psychological processes in later life. This approaching integration of adult and developmental social psychology is long overdue and promises benefits to research in both disciplines. The goal of this volume is to move the fields toward this synthesis. For this reason, we have put together a collection of original essays by authors who are among the more prominent new researchers in this movement. In selecting topics we have tried to cover areas of recent social cognition research that are of interest to both developmental and adult social psychologists. This volume is divided into three general sections: (1) Attribution and Social Judgment, (2) Moral Development and a Sense of Self, and (3) Social Influences on Cognitive Development.