Developmental Relationships between Language and Cognition

Human cognition is the bedrock on which human language is built. However, within the last 10 years, interest in the role that the development of language in turn plays on cognitive processes has been revived. This chapter takes stock of recently published evidence on the impact that language plays in cognitive development. It contains (1) a brief review of background underlying current research on language-thought relations; (2) an evaluation of the methods that are used; (3) a survey of the domains in which language effects have been shown; and finally (4) a list of the ways in which language and cognition interact in development.