Few issues are more important to developmental scientists than understanding and elucidating mechanisms of developmental change. There are good reasons for this. For example, understanding how developmental change is produced allows developmental researchers to go beyond studying at what age an ability emerges to understanding the underlying processes by which those abilities develop in the first place. Yet, despite their importance, the term mechanism is not well understood. This lack of understanding is problematic because researchers and theorists can disagree and debate about what does and does not ‘count’ as mechanism research, which can slow scientific progress. Given this issue, this paper has three broad aims. The first aim was to provide a clear definition for one kind of developmental mechanism, namely, developmental mechanisms of cognitive change. The second aim is to provide a concrete example of a developmental mechanism and discuss how it works in detail, from start to finish. The third aim is to challenge the field to be more explicit about how their proposed developmental mechanisms work to ensure scientific progress.

中文翻译：

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“但机制是什么？”：揭开难以捉摸的“发展机制”的神秘面纱


对于发育科学家来说，没有什么比理解和阐明发育变化机制更重要的了。这是有充分理由的。例如，了解发展变化是如何产生的，使发展研究人员不仅可以研究一种能力在什么年龄出现，还可以了解这些能力最初发展的潜在过程。然而，尽管机制一词很重要，但人们对它的理解却并不充分。这种缺乏理解是有问题的，因为研究人员和理论家可能会就什么“算”和“不算”机制研究存在分歧和争论，这可能会减缓科学进步。鉴于这个问题，本文有三个主要目标。第一个目的是为一种发展机制，即认知变化的发展机制提供明确的定义。第二个目标是提供一个发展机制的具体例子，并详细讨论它从开始到结束是如何运作的。第三个目标是要求该领域更明确地说明他们提出的发展机制如何确保科学进步。