http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1322515

Language and the discovery of reality : a developmental psychology of cognition

"Language and the discovery of reality is an exciting, highly readable, and richly informative account of the way human beings, in the course of growing up, come to discover reality. It is about the acquisition of language and the kinds of behavior that language makes possible. It is a book that reflects the growing interest in the psychology of communication and the increasing need for an account of the ways in which language develops and becomes functional in human communication. The characteristics that so distinguished the successful childhood and adolescence (co-authored with L. Joseph Stone) are evident in this new work, for the style is clear and forceful, the case closely reasoned and buttressed by solid scholarship. The book is divided into two parts. Professor Church believes that developmental change can best be accounted for in cognitive terms. Part I sets forth some basic principles of cognitive development and deals with facts and principles of cognitive organization prior to the acquisition of language. It describes the way in which children come to understand and use language, the transformation of human functioning that follows, and the cognitive operations made possible. Part II is concerned with a psychological approach to problems of meaning and reference, and with the associated problems of linguistic determinism and cultural learning. The author deals with the relationships between language and thinking, with intelligence and its assessment, and with techniques for the study of symbolic functioning. Finally he gives an account of a cognitive approach to problems of emotion and motivation and considers his viewpoint against the theoretical orientations prevailing in psychology today. Students, teachers, professional workers, and parents will find in this book a notable and welcome contribution, not only to the psychology of language, but to the psychology of human behavior"--Jacket. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

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