TESTING-THE-LIMITS AND EXPERIMENTAL SIMULATION - 2 METHODS TO EXPLICATE THE ROLE OF LEARNING IN DEVELOPMENT

Developmental psychology needs a coalition of different research metho ds and strategies to achieve a more complete picture of the range of d evelopment and its causes. In this article, two such strategies are de scribed - testing-the-limits and the experimental simulation of develo pment. The aim of testing-the-limits research is to identify and decom pose age-graded differences in upper limits of plasticity (the norm of reaction or the zone of potential development). The experimental simu lation of development consists of a coordinated sequence of theory-gui ded research steps. Its key features are identification of causal mech anisms through the arrangement of experimental conditions that mimic ( simulate) variations in developmental phenomena, and subsequent evalua tion of the evidence in naturalistic settings. The two approaches are discussed and illustrated with examples from life span cognitive and s ocial psychology.