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Infancy Through the Lens of Evolutionary Developmental Science

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Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Psychology ((EVOLPSYCH))

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Abstract

Natural selection has operated more strongly on infancy than other stages of development. Infants are born with low-level perceptual and cognitive biases to attend to and process some information more readily than others. Because of infants’ high degree of plasticity, these biases can result in a range of outcomes, depending upon an infant’s specific experiences; however, most infants will develop species-typical behavior assuming exposure to a species-typical environment. Some adaptations of infancy serve as the foundation for later, more sophisticated processes (deferred adaptations), whereas others serve to adapt infants to their current environment and disappear when they are no longer needed (ontogenetic adaptations). Infancy is defined differently by different researchers: (1) the first year of life, reflecting the substantial changes in cognition and behavior over a brief period of time; (2) the first two years of life, corresponding to the acquisition of language and the transition from a mostly sensorimotor to symbolic form of representation; and (3) from birth to weaning (about 3 years), permitting contrasts with nonhuman mammals. The remainder of the chapter summarizes the contributions to the volume.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    David F. Bjorklund

  2. Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Sybil L. Hart

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  1. David F. Bjorklund
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  2. Sybil L. Hart
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Correspondence to David F. Bjorklund .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Sybil L. Hart

  2. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    David F. Bjorklund

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Bjorklund, D.F., Hart, S.L. (2022). Infancy Through the Lens of Evolutionary Developmental Science. In: Hart, S.L., Bjorklund, D.F. (eds) Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76000-7_1

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