DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Representation and Communication in Development

Language, Literacy, and Cognitive Development: The Development and Consequences of Symbolic Communication
Edited by Eric Amsel and James Byrnes. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. 280 pp. Cloth, $69.95.

Some say that developmental psychology entered the modern age when the con- flicting views of Piaget and Vygotsky began to influence research and theory. Others claim that it entered the modern age when the conflicting views of Piaget and Chomsky began to dominate the discourse. In the first case it raised the question of how culture affected cognitive development, in the second, how language affected cognitive development. The volume under review provides an up-to-date account of progress in answering these two questions: How do language, a natural competence, and literacy, an acquired notational competence affect cognitive development?