A Cognitive Approach to Modelling Structural Change

The ability to account for developing as well as stable states is considered an important general requirement for theories in a variety of disciplines. Sometimes, however, theories developed in the first instance to deal with the more straightforward cases do not easily extend to the more difficult cases. This is apparent not only in Economics, where rapidly changing structures call for the re-consideration of established forms of representation, but also, for instance, in Cognitive Psychology where a range of abilities are modelled prior to consideration of how they are learned. The underlying rationale may be the idea that, given an understanding of the simpler issues, we will be in a better position to tackle the more complex ones. However, this is a hope which does not seem to have a sound basis; whereas it is reasonable to assume the converse, that theories which incorporate development will be sufficiently general to deal with stable states.