DYNAMICS OF COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENT - A UNIFYING APPROACH TO UNIVERSAL TRENDS AND INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

In this article, I discuss the importance of inter- and intraindividua l differences in understanding development in general and cognitive de velopment in particular. Rather than treating such differences as nois e that needs to be exorcised from the data, it is argued that such var iability provides invaluable information about development. In fact, b etween and within individual instabilities represent an important cach e of information about development, one that needs to be fully exploit ed. In order to do this, a new dynamic modeling framework is discussed , one in which individual variability is key to the analysis and under standing of development.