Self-organization occurs in systems with many degrees of freedom and is ubiquitous in the brain. The principal means of investigating the role of self-organization in cognitive development is through connectionist computational modeling. Connectionist models are computer models loosely based on neural information processing. We survey a range of models of cognitive development in infants and children and identify the constraints on self-organization that lead to the emergence of target behaviors. A survey of connectionist models of abnormal cognitive development illustrates how deviations in these constraints can lead to the development of abnormal behaviors.
Special attention is paid to models of development in autistic children.