DeLTA is a loose distributed set of faculty who share a deep curiosity about learning and development. We don't all do one thing, and that's one purpose.
But DeLTA also brings together like minded teams to create novel intellectual products that convey our unique perspective, ask novel interdisciplinary questions, and push the field to new perspectives. A sample of these products is below.
Short Arms & Talking Eggs: Rethinking Nature/Nurture
Around the founding of the DeLTA Center, our core members convened to develop a novel synthesis of developmental systems theory with (at the time) current thinking in imprinting, infant spatial development, language development. Our goal was to challenge a simplistic nature/nurture dichotomy and push the field to a richer view.
Spencer, J. P., Blumberg, M. S., McMurray, B., Robinson, S. R., Samuelson, L. K., & Tomblin, J. B. (2009). Short arms and talking eggs: Why we should no longer abide the nativist–empiricist debate. Child development perspectives, 3(2), 79-87.
This led to some wonderful commentaries and a rejoinder.
Spencer, J.P., Samuelson, L.K., Blumberg, M.S., McMurray, B., Robinson, S.R. and Bruce Tomblin, J. (2009), Seeing the World Through a Third Eye: Developmental Systems Theory Looks Beyond the Nativist–Empiricist Debate. Child Development Perspectives, 3: 103-105.
Together Series
The TOGETHER (Targeting Our Goals for Equitable Treatment in Healthcare, Education and Research) Series’ mission was to address the need for culturally responsive care in health professions and research to better serve underserved and marginalized populations.
The virtual series did this by creating a platform for diverse interdisciplinary speakers to present on topics relevant to addressing inequities in health. These presentations were conducted live to facilitate discussion but they've been recorded, archived, and shared here.
View TOGETHER
How We Develop: Developmental Systems and the Emergence of Complex Behaviors
In 2021 DeLTA led a special collection in WIREs Cognitive Science that brought together scientists from around the world to synthesize developmental systems thinking with a variety of domains.
Blumberg, M., Spencer, J., and Shenk, D. (eds) (2021) How We Develop — Developmental Systems and the Emergence of Complex Behaviors. Special collection in WIREs Cognitive Science