This research study centers on the interrelations among culture, social change, informal education, and cognitive development. The study explored how changing cultural and social conditions influence processes of informal education and their cognitive consequences. The overall goal was to examine the relationship between important cultural tools, techniques of informal education, cognitive processes, and the ecology of a changing world. Two sets of studies were done in two very different societies, one Zinacantan (an indigenous Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico) and the other the United States. The focus for each was on the nature of the learning processes and the cognitive consequences of mastering a major technology indigenous to that particular setting, weaving in Mexico and video games in the United States. Findings for each of the societies are reviewed. (EH)