Claims that mind and mental objects form a societal mental structure enabling children to assimilate the society and become co-constructing members. Cites evidence that competence to create mental objects, symbols, and meanings separated from action is the evolutionary evolved human capacity for society and culture. Vygotsky's "natural"…

Biological theories of adaptation are used to generate a model of human cognitive development in which physiological and cognitive change in aged persons can be understood as an adaptive stage of development. Related literature is reviewed that focuses on the elderly as information transmitters and on the psychology of "telling."…