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Tracking affordances requires a sophisticated model of life stages, phases, and transitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2026

Marco Del Giudice Open the ORCID record for Marco Del Giudice [Opens in a new window]
Marco Del Giudice*
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy marco.delgiudice@units.it
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Tracking the emergence, use, and transformation of affordances across the life course requires a sophisticated evolutionary model of development. I argue that the proposed distinction between “childhood,” “mating,” and “parenting” stages suffers from important limitations and should be replaced by a finer-grained taxonomy in which stages are not identified with specific overarching goals. I also suggest that obligate life stages may be usefully distinguished from facultative, reversible life phases.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e64
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

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