Peter Hobson, a Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, examines how thought develops in infants, focussing on the subsequent differences in the quality of thinking between individuals and what this suggests about the place of thought in the history of evolution.
Hobson firmly refutes the notion that thinking is turned on by biologically pre-determined 'modules' in the brain, arguing instead that it arises from the nature and quality of the relationship between parent and child in the first eighteen months of life. This will be a controversial book not only in scientific circles, but also in its contribution to the wider parenting, IQ and nature/nurture debates.
Accessible, authoritative and extremely readable, Cradle of Thought is a major work of popular science.