Research on how communicating human beings produce and understand language has focused mostly on what language is, less on how language is processed, and little on who produces and understands language. However, the interaction between what, who, and how is very significant. The importance of who does languaging is related both to the cognitive…

According to the cognitive development theory of Lev Vygotsky, learning is formed, and thinking is transformed as a result of participation in purposeful activity with others. Through joint activity, social problem solving is learned and eventually internalized into intrapsychological processes. This paper describes an experimental teacher…

This study explored the relationship between the mother-infant interaction and the concurrent perceptual-cognitive and intellectual status of the infant. One hundred and eight-nine 12-week-old infants were given a battery of perceptual-cognitive tasks, including the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales, the Corman-Escalona Scales…

This paper traces the development of interpersonal skills and characterizes the essential features of social interaction as they change from infancy to adolescence. It is demonstrated that, at each life stage, the quality of social relationships is dependent on the person's capacity for interpersonal closeness, his ability to use language, and his…

The paper examines George Herbert Mead's account of the individual's relation to the physical world. Mead (1863-1931) taught social psychology and philosophy at the University of Chicago from 1893-1931 and is best known for his theory of self. This theory maintains that the self is formed in a particular historical context and that it includes…

This study investigated the use of computer mediated communication (CMC) to increase the cognitive level of student discourse by allowing students to reflect on difficult concepts on an as needed basis. The role of electronic mail (e-mail) interaction in producing a positive group feeling and closer personal relationships is also examined. Field…

A study examined patterns of development in spoken interaction and types of causal thought that might reflect the human capacity to displace, that is, to shift reference from the present moment to another moment in time. Participants were four infants and their parents, who came to a laboratory for one-half hour every 2 weeks from the child's…

This longitudinal study attempted to assess how environmental factors affect the development of competence, as defined by White, by delineating in detail the everyday environmental transactions of a group of children from age 1 to 3. The key questions of this research were: (1) Are certain experiences encountered by the young child in his everyday…

Middle and upper class 3- and 4-year-old children were exposed to three consecutive 5-week treatment conditions in the naturalistic setting of a half-day laboratory nursery school program. During the first treatment condition, the teacher emphasized low level cognitive questions; during the second, high level cognitive questions; and during the…

This study examines the hypothesis that the lack of parental approval of the child characterizes child-abusing families. As part of a larger study of the coping styles of such families, a variety of verbal and non-verbal behaviors in parent-child interactions was examined. Subjects were 80 mother-child pairs from among four groups of comparable…

In any successful conversation, a speaker must select both what is said and how it is said on the basis of various estimates of the listener's abilities, knowledge and interests. Most research on linguistic input to children has focused on the tendency of speakers to simplify their speech for the younger listener. Little attention has been paid to…

Data from the 1969-70 and 1970-71 Head Start Planned Variation (HSPV)Study were used to examine program-child interactions. An effort was made to determine whether different preschool programs have different cognitive effects on different types of children. Seven hypotheses for the analysis of the data were generated from the results of the HSPV…

This study reports on differences in children's interactional behaviors in traditional and nontraditional classrooms. The Differentiated Child Behavior Observational System which provides for systematic recording of group behavior in ongoing classroom activities, was applied in two days of observation in each of 17 classrooms (grades 1 to 3, ages…