Esther Thelen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1463965 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Esther Thelen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Esther |
| FAMILY NAME | Thelen |
| SIGNATURE | THELEN E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University Bloomington |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Dynamic Systems Theory and the Complexity of Change
The central thesis of this paper is that grand theories of development are alive and well and should be paramount to those interested in behavioral intervention. Why? Because how we think about development affects how we approach treatment. Here I discuss the central concepts of a new theory of development—dynamic systems theory—to highlight the way in which a theory can dramatically alter views of what intervention is all about. Rather than focu…
Development as a dynamic system
The dynamics of embodiment
The overall goal of this target article is to demonstrate a mechanism for an embodied cognition. The particular vehicle is a much-studied, but still widely debated phenomenon seen in 7–12 month-old-infants. In Piaget's classic “A-not-B error,” infants who have successfully uncovered a toy at location “A” continue to reach to that location even after they watch the toy hidden in a nearby location “B.” Here, we question the traditional explanations…
Many Roads Lead to Rome
Spatially Specific Changes in Infants' Muscle Coactivity as They Learn to Reach
Infants first reach out and touch objects between the ages of 3 and 5 months. This article reports changes in muscle coactivity associated with this transition. A group of 4 infants were observed weekly from 3 to 30 weeks and every 2 weeks from 30 to 52 weeks. Hand kinematics of both prereaching and reaching movements were collected, as was electromyographic activity from the trapezius, deltoid, biceps, and triceps. Before infants first reached f…
Grounded in the World
Piaget's (1952) question of how the adult mind emerges from the sensorimotor infant is still the framing issue for developmental psychology. Here I suggest that real‐life skill is better understood if the sensorimotor origins of cognition are not abandoned. Skilled people are not only better at both abstract and logical thinking but also at processing the world “online” and, most important, seamlessly and rapidly shifting between the two modes. I…
"Was McGraw a maturationist?"
"Was McGraw a maturationist?"
Motor development
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action presents a comprehensive and detailed theory of early human development based on the principles of dynamic systems theory. Beginning with their own research in motor, perceptual, and cognitive development, Thelen and Smith raise fundamental questions about prevailing assumptions in the field. They propose a new theory of the development of cognition and action, unifying recent …
Coordination and Control in the Bow Arm Movements of Highly Skilled Cellists
Cello bowing requires precise coordination and control of the arm segments to meet exacting performance demands of timing, stroke amplitude, and bow pres- sure. In this article, we examine the kinematics of cello bowing as reflected in the relative timing and velocity patterns of the arm joints and the bow of skilled cellists as they performed two musical fragments with similar bowing sequences but at different speeds and from different musical c…
Arnold L. Gesell
Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) has had an important and lasting impact on the field of developmental psychology. He is best remembered for his developmental norms, which were acquired from decades of detailed observations of infants and children and are still the basis of most early assessments of behavioral functioning. Gesell's influence as a theorist is less direct. His maturationism quickly lost favor in the intellectual climate of Piaget, behavio…
The (re)discovery of motor development
Self-organizing systems and infant motor development
Development of early expressive and communicative action
A systems approach is introduced and applied to the development of expressive and communicative action of infants in the first year of life. In this approach, expressive and communicative actions are organized, as part of cooperative systems with other elements of the infants' physiology, cognition, behavior, and social environment. A systems approach presumes that order arises dynamically as a result of the interaction between the cooperating el…
The dynamic nature of early coordination
Newborn stepping
Rhythmical behavior in infancy
Development of early expressive and communicative action
A systems approach is introduced and applied to the development of expressive and communicative action of infants in the first year of life. In this approach, expressive and communicative actions are organized, as part of cooperative systems with other elements of the infants' physiology, cognition, behavior, and social environment. A systems approach presumes that order arises dynamically as a result of the interaction between the cooperating el…
Motor development
Newborn stepping
Rhythmical behavior in infancy
Arnold L. Gesell
Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) has had an important and lasting impact on the field of developmental psychology. He is best remembered for his developmental norms, which were acquired from decades of detailed observations of infants and children and are still the basis of most early assessments of behavioral functioning. Gesell's influence as a theorist is less direct. His maturationism quickly lost favor in the intellectual climate of Piaget, behavio…
The (re)discovery of motor development
The dynamic nature of early coordination
Rhythmical behavior in infancy
Newborn stepping
Self-organizing systems and infant motor development
Development of early expressive and communicative action
A systems approach is introduced and applied to the development of expressive and communicative action of infants in the first year of life. In this approach, expressive and communicative actions are organized, as part of cooperative systems with other elements of the infants' physiology, cognition, behavior, and social environment. A systems approach presumes that order arises dynamically as a result of the interaction between the cooperating el…
The dynamic nature of early coordination
The (re)discovery of motor development
Arnold L. Gesell
Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) has had an important and lasting impact on the field of developmental psychology. He is best remembered for his developmental norms, which were acquired from decades of detailed observations of infants and children and are still the basis of most early assessments of behavioral functioning. Gesell's influence as a theorist is less direct. His maturationism quickly lost favor in the intellectual climate of Piaget, behavio…
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action presents a comprehensive and detailed theory of early human development based on the principles of dynamic systems theory. Beginning with their own research in motor, perceptual, and cognitive development, Thelen and Smith raise fundamental questions about prevailing assumptions in the field. They propose a new theory of the development of cognition and action, unifying recent …
Coordination and Control in the Bow Arm Movements of Highly Skilled Cellists
Cello bowing requires precise coordination and control of the arm segments to meet exacting performance demands of timing, stroke amplitude, and bow pres- sure. In this article, we examine the kinematics of cello bowing as reflected in the relative timing and velocity patterns of the arm joints and the bow of skilled cellists as they performed two musical fragments with similar bowing sequences but at different speeds and from different musical c…
Motor development
"Was McGraw a maturationist?"
"Was McGraw a maturationist?"
Many Roads Lead to Rome
Spatially Specific Changes in Infants' Muscle Coactivity as They Learn to Reach
Infants first reach out and touch objects between the ages of 3 and 5 months. This article reports changes in muscle coactivity associated with this transition. A group of 4 infants were observed weekly from 3 to 30 weeks and every 2 weeks from 30 to 52 weeks. Hand kinematics of both prereaching and reaching movements were collected, as was electromyographic activity from the trapezius, deltoid, biceps, and triceps. Before infants first reached f…
Grounded in the World
Piaget's (1952) question of how the adult mind emerges from the sensorimotor infant is still the framing issue for developmental psychology. Here I suggest that real‐life skill is better understood if the sensorimotor origins of cognition are not abandoned. Skilled people are not only better at both abstract and logical thinking but also at processing the world “online” and, most important, seamlessly and rapidly shifting between the two modes. I…
The dynamics of embodiment
The overall goal of this target article is to demonstrate a mechanism for an embodied cognition. The particular vehicle is a much-studied, but still widely debated phenomenon seen in 7–12 month-old-infants. In Piaget's classic “A-not-B error,” infants who have successfully uncovered a toy at location “A” continue to reach to that location even after they watch the toy hidden in a nearby location “B.” Here, we question the traditional explanations…
Development as a dynamic system
Dynamic Systems Theory and the Complexity of Change
The central thesis of this paper is that grand theories of development are alive and well and should be paramount to those interested in behavioral intervention. Why? Because how we think about development affects how we approach treatment. Here I discuss the central concepts of a new theory of development—dynamic systems theory—to highlight the way in which a theory can dramatically alter views of what intervention is all about. Rather than focu…
Psychology (18 works) · Cognitive psychology (11 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (9 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Cognitive science (8 works) · Neuroscience (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Children's Physical and Motor Development (4 works) · Cognition (4 works)