First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Documenting the bidirectional traffic from gene action to the external environment and its effects on behavior remains a major conceptual, empirical, and analytical challenge for developmental science. Charney has provided an instructive snapshot of where we are in meeting this challenge and, in so doing, exposes the considerable shortcomings of the traditional genomic model employed by behavior genetics.

Neuroconstructivism (Mareschal et al. 2007a) provides a useful framework for how to integrate research from different levels of analysis to model the multidimensional dynamics of development. However, the authors overlook the topic of meaning, a fundamental feature of cognition and subjective experience and also downplay the nonlinear nature of developmental causality. Neuroconstructivism is overly optimistic on the point of how well current computational models can address the challenge of complexity in developmental science.