Language in Cognitive Development
The Emergence of the Mediated Mind

This book discusses the role of language as a cognitive and communicative tool in a child's early development.

Katherine Nelson (Author)

9780521629874, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 March 1998

452 pages, 9 b/w illus. 9 tables
22.7 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

"In sum, this important and thought-provoking book sets an ambitious agenda and progresses a long way toward achieving it." Maureen A. Callanan, Human Development

Contemporary study of language and cognition in infancy and early childhood has received considerable, well deserved attention. However, little effort has been directed to the means by which language becomes a cognitive and communicative tool, as well as what the full implications of this development may be. This book highlights a transition from the study of language and cognition to that of language in cognition. It presents an integrative theory of cognitive development, emphasizing the important role that language plays in taking the two to five year old child to new levels of cognitive operations in memory, forming concepts, categories, processing narratives, and understanding other people's intentions. Biological evolution is considered the source of both language and culture but it is argued that qualitatively different modes of thinking and knowing emerge therefrom.

Part I. Perspectives: 1. Language, cognition and culture in developmental perspective
2. Emergence of human minds in evolution and development
3. Evolution and development of the hybrid mind
Part II. Developing Representational Systems: 4. Early cognition: episodic to mimetic childhood in a hybrid culture
5. The emergence of mediating language
6. Memory in early childhood: the emergence of the historical self
7. The emergence of the storied mind
Part III. Developing Conceptual Systems: 8. The emergence of the paradigmatic mind
9. The emergence of the temporal mind
10. The emergence of the projective mind
Part IV. Conclusions: 11. Collaborative construction of the mediated mind.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC]