Safe takeoffs—soft landings
Douglas L. Medin · Cognitive Science · 1990
Summary The set of papers in this special issue is indeed provocative. Using an analysis of constraints to trace the course of development may not yet be “the only game in town” but, in our opinion, it provides a fundamental and critically important perspective on cognitive development in particular as well as cognitive science in general. Further research on developmental constraints promises to provide more accurate descriptions of mental representation for computer modelers of human cognition, to stimulate new approaches to learning, and perhaps to propose common origins of cognitive abilities that were previously thought to be unrelated. It is no mean accomplishment to face up to computational complexity and still produce safe takeoffs and soft landings.