Visual Walk-Through

A special goal for this edition, like the previous one, has been to increase its pedagogical value. The single-column format has made it possible to introduce a comprehensive, unified Learning System, which will help students focus their reading and review and retain what they learn.
As always, we seek to make the study of human development come alive by telling illustrative stories about actual incidents in the lives of real people. In this edition, each chapter opens with a fascinating bio- graphical vignette from a period in the life of a well-known person (such as Elvis Presley, Isabel Allende, Anne Frank, Jackie Robinson, John Glenn, and Mahatma Gandhi) or a classic case (such as the Wild Boy of Aveyron and Charles Darwin's diary of his son's first year).
The subjects of these vignettes are people of diverse national and ethnic origins, whose experiences dramatize important themes in the chapter. We believe stu- dents will enjoy and identify with these stories, which lead directly into the body of the chapter, are woven into its fabric, and are revisited in the new Refocus feature at the end of each chapter.