Throughout childhood, children experience the social semiotic of music in a variety of ways. As they sing, dance, move, and play, they enjoy making and listening to music. Childhood is also a time of immense change. During their early years, children grow and develop at a faster rate than at any other time in their lives, displaying an intense proliferation of ways of knowing about the world. As part of the industrious activity that accompanies this explosion of knowledge, children sing many songs. It is through sensitive investigation of these songs that we can begin to understand what children know about music, and the place that it is afforded in the social milieux within which they participate. Children???s songs have been the focus of investigation for a number of years, with a range of studies reporting on the manner in which they reflect musical development. Several researchers have reported on children???s songs from a developmental perspective, while others have focussed on the social and functional contexts of the songs. These various approaches have established some basic principles concerning the development of children???s musical skills and knowledge. It is accepted that as children mature, they are likely to exhibit changes in their musical understanding and abilities. However, the diverse range of inquiries that have been undertaken, although rigorous, have resulted in fragmented and irresolute information about the manner in which these changes take place. Research into all areas of children???s development has recently undergone a paradigm shift, with current views focussing on the agency of children and their development within a social context. Such perspectives view the acquisition of knowledge as a dynamic process that occurs as children interact with others, and therefore place great importance on a range of environments in which this knowledge gain takes place. This thesis reports on a 3-year longitudinal study of eight preschool-aged children who were attending a long day care centre in Sydney. Regular video-recordings were made of the children???s spontaneous singing during free play, with each child recorded approximately once per month. Camera tapes were examined and all examples of the participants??? singing were transferred to VHS tapes for transcription and analysis. The resulting 443 songs were transcribed using Western notation, and each play episode and associated song then coded for musical aspects such as song type, melodic range and level of temporal organisation, as well as social aspects such as song function and social roles taken on by the children. The notion of social role was informed by Vygotsky???s Zone of Proximal Development. In addition to base data such as the child???s name and the date of the observation, the resultant dataset was transferred to a qualitative software package (NUD???IST) for subsequent analysis and interpretation. Results of the study indicate that the children used songs for specific purposes, and that patterns of musical development were distinctly different for each child. While interacting with their playmates, the children used both explicit and implicit tools to acquire and transmit musical signs. During this process, the status of knowledgeable other was often conferred on a playmate by a less knowledgeable member of the group, and was not solely dependent on chronological age. The results exhibit some congruence with prior studies, especially those for which the social context of music-making was an important consideration. The findings expand previous developmentally-based investigations by showing that conceptions based on a unidirectional model of musical development, closely linked to chronological age, need to be refined to consider the diversity of social contexts and generative processes within which children???s musical cultures can be defined. The current study supports a modular conception of musical development allied with recent social reconstructions of childhood. Some substantiation of previously reported Western musical universals was found in the children???s production of a specific form of chant, and their ability to operate within meaningful musical units such as phrases. The thesis includes a discussion of practical and theoretical implications that arise from the findings. Several implications for the classroom are offered. Among the most important are that children???s musical constructions should be utilised as important components of planned teaching and learning experiences, because they are capable of producing sophisticated music if afforded the opportunity to do so. Careful observation of existing musical knowledge and its incorporation in teachers??? programming will facilitate an efficient and appropriate mode of teaching and learning, based on the needs and interests of the children. As the children were able to scaffold each other in the process of transmitting and acquiring musical knowledge, it appears advantageous to group them in mixed ages for at least some part of the week. However, without some intervention on the part of the teacher, it seems that they would likely rely on a fairly restricted collection of scaffolding behaviours. Additional research is recommended to determine the value of a number of strategies that can be used to meet the musical needs of preschool-aged children beyond the current research site. Indeed, the outcomes of the study question the importance of striving for a unidirectional model of musical development, immersed in the veil of teleology, and suggest that further research be undertaken in the area of children???s songs, which acknowledges the social agency of children, and their roles in their own musical cultures.

abstract: Drawing on a wide variety of literature from social constructionism, communities of practice and knowledge management this study brings to light the kind of support teachers will need in order to be able to use a knowledge construction model to develop a continual learning process for arts integration. Arts integration is a highly effective instructional strategy that brings active engagement, problem solving and higher levels of cognition to students. However arts integration is not easy work. It takes a great deal of planning and collaboration. In this action research study, I take the perspective of a social artist, a facilitator, who offers a framework for a group of teacher participants to dialogue, collaborate and share ideas and skills to develop arts integrated products to share with others. Utilizing a mixed methodology approach, the findings of this action research study revealed that the intervention had a positive impact on the participants. Though there were some set backs, participants reported more dialogue and shared experiences about arts integration on a daily basis, more dialogue about new arts integrate ideas, and an increased sense of collaboration in developing arts integrated products. Furthermore, the Knowledge Construction Model (KCM) concept had strength as a potential professional development model for teachers and schools interested in growing their arts integration practices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-12-14Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:18:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 motta_cc_me_assis.pdf: 418244 bytes, checksum: 40e0f3ae8e6888bec12889abb68459a5 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A lei nº11.274/2006, que amplia o ensino fundamental, tem exigido inúmeras transformações e investimentos, no âmbito educacional, a fim de incluir a criança de seis anos de idade. Isso acarreta uma reestruturação tanto na estrutura física, quanto na estrutura curricular das instituições. Diante dessa recente política pública que privilegia a antecipação da escolaridade, a presente pesquisa, fundamentada no Enfoque Histórico-Cultural, teve por objetivo discutir o processo de ampliação da escolaridade obrigatória e suas implicações para o fazer docente do professor. O trabalho, realizado numa escola do município de Assis (EMEIF), caracteriza-se como um estudo de caso qualitativo e pode ser definido como a investigação de um fenômeno específico que nos permite ter uma visão ampla do espaço escolar, buscando delimitar seus contornos e focalizar o que ele tem de particular. Os procedimentos de pesquisa adotados incluíram a observação participante da prática cotidiana da instituição, entrevistas semiestruturadas com os professores e a análise documental do projeto político-pedagógico. A partir do material obtido, estabelecemos algumas temáticas relevantes, tais como: o ensino fundamental de nove anos, a concepção de criança e o processo de ensino e aprendizagem e a organização da ação pedagógica. Essas temáticas, as quais constituíram o repertório de análise, não representam aspectos dispostos isoladamente, mas integram uma realidade social, cultural e histórica. Os resultados principais apontaram que os professores mostraram pouco conhecimento a respeito da lei, em meio a uma prática apoiada principalmente numa visão biológica do desenvolvimento da criança e centrada na figura do professor. / The Law No. 11274/2006, which extends to the basic school, has required numerous changes and investments in education, in terms of educational, in order to include the child of six years of age. This leads to a restructuring in both the physical structure, and in the curricular structure of the institutions. Given this recent public policy that focuses on advancing the education, the present study, based on historical-cultural perspective, aimed to discuss the process of expanding the compulsory education and its implications for the teacher. The study, conducted in a school in the city of Assis (EMEIF), is characterized as a qualitative case study and can be defined as the investigation of a specific phenomenon that allows us to take a broad view of school space, seeking to define its contours and focus on what it has in particular. The research procedures adopted included participant observation of daily practice of the institution, semi-structured interviews with teachers and documentary analysis of the political-pedagogical project. From the material obtained, it was established some relevant themes, such as basic education of nine years, the conception of the child and the teaching and learning process and the organization of pedagogical action. These themes, which formed the repertoire of analysis, didn’t represent aspects by themselves, but they are part of a social, cultural and historical reality. The main findings indicate that teachers showed little knowledge about the law, amid a practice supported mainly a biological view of child development and primarily designed for teachers.

Da totalidade da produção vygotskiana sobre arte, há duas obras editadas e traduzidas para vários idiomas: o ensaio sobre Hamlet, A tragédia de Hamlet, príncipe da Dinamarca, de 1915-6, e Psicologia da arte, de 1925. Ambas foram editadas em russo em um mesmo volume somente em 1965. Entre elas, há uma intensa produção do autor como crítico teatral e literário, que até muito pouco tempo constava apenas de listagens de bibliografias e era inédita mesmo em russo. Assim, o objetivo da presente tese é contribuir para a superação dessa importante lacuna na divulgação da obra inicial de Vygotski (entre 1915 e 1926). O corpus investigado compreende um vasto conjunto de resenhas e artigos, principalmente sobre literatura e teatro, além de uma breve incursão no campo das artes plásticas. A partir do levantamento e exame dessa produção, foi feita a tradução diretamente do russo de uma seleção de textos inéditos em português. Esse material foi agrupado temática e cronologicamente em oito eixos: 1) teatro e revolução; 2) crítica literária; 3) crítica teatral sobre a Companhia Solovtsóv; 4) crítica teatral sobre o teatro judaico de Rubin; 5) crítica teatral balanço; 6) dança; 7) teatro infantil; 8) artes plásticas. A tese está dividida em dois blocos principais: no primeiro deles são comentadas as produções do Vygotski conhecido (A tragédia de Hamlet, príncipe da Dinamarca e Psicologia da arte), ao passo que o segundo é dedicado ao comentário sobre os textos inéditos selecionados, cujas traduções são apresentadas em anexo. O Vygótski-crítico que conhecemos a partir do material estudado é alguém com grande sensibilidade estética e também um militante pelo desenvolvimento de uma cena de qualidade nos palcos provincianos. Sua perspectiva sobre a arte busca superar tanto o reducionismo de uma tendência estritamente formal quanto da estética marxista vulgar. / From all Vygotsky\'s works on art, two of them were edited and translated into several languages: the essay on Hamlet from 1915-6 and Psychology of art, from 1925. Both came to light in Russian in a single edition only in 1965. Between them, the author has produced extensively as a theatrical and literary critic. This production has appeared only in bibliographical listings, but remained, until very short ago, unpublished even in Russian. Thus, the objective of the present thesis is to contribute to overcome this gap in the divulgation of Vygotsky\'s initial work (1915-1926). The investigated corpus comprises a vast number of reviews and articles, mainly on literature and theater, plus a brief incursion in the field of plastic arts. From the survey and exam of this production, a selection of texts previously unpublished in Portuguese was translated directly from Russian. This material was thematically and chronologically grouped in eight axes: 1) theater and revolution; 2) literary criticism; 3) theatrical criticism on Solovtsov troupe; 4) theatrical criticism on Rubins Jewish theater; 5) theatrical criticism overview; 6) dance; 7) children\'s theater; 8) plastic arts. The thesis is divided in two main parts: the first is dedicated to the production of the known Vygotsky (essay on Hamlet and Psychology of art), while the second provides comments on the selected unpublished texts, whose translations are presented in the appendix. The Vygotsky-critic that we get to know from the examined material is someone with great aesthetical sensibility and a militant for the development of a qualified scene in the provincial stage. His perspective on art seeks to overcome the reductionism of a strictly formal approach as well as vulgar Marxist aesthetics.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Our basic assumption for this work is that the abilities to appraise and to categorize are closely related, leading us to the conclusion that they are part of a single process: that of knowledge organization. In this paper, we will discuss specifically some topics involving knowledge organization as far as concept formation is concerned, searching to understand its nature. For this purpose, we have used as theoretical background the works on concept formation by Vygotsky ([1934] 2000) and Nelson (1998; 1986). We believe that Nelsonâs views on young children cognitive processing, centered on the action context and on the childrenâs daily experiences can provide a more significant contribution for an extended vision of the nature of the process of concept formation than the ideas presented by Vygotsky who, in spite of stressing the importance of the context in concept formation, carried out his experiments based on artificial concepts. To check if the concepts become more abstract as time goes by or if they show to be limited to the individualâs context, connected to their memory (thus contextualized), we carry out a study with Elementary, Junior High and High School students as subjects, whose main purpose was to understand the nature of the participantsâ concepts. The students were asked to define the terms âplantâ and âanimalâ and took part in two classification activities using a set of cards, adapted from Panofsky, John-Steiner and Blackwell (1996), which consisted of twenty and one (21) pictures (07 belonging to the âplantâ category and 14 to the âanimalâ category). From the analysis of the definitions obtained and of the justifications for grouping the items into categories, we could observe that there is not a single, exclusive base for the participantsâ conceptualizations, that is, none of the categories has shown to be predominant. On the contrary, the category concepts are formed from internalized pieces of information about the world, no matter if these pieces of information are of a daily or of a more formal nature. / Neste trabalho partimos da premissa de que as habilidades de conceituar e de categorizar estÃo intimamente relacionadas, levando-nos a concluir que elas fazem parte de um Ãnico processo: o de organizaÃÃo do conhecimento. Especificamente, abordaremos questÃes concernentes à organizaÃÃo do conhecimento no tocante à formaÃÃo de conceitos buscando compreender a sua natureza. Para isso, utilizamos como base teÃrica os trabalhos sobre formaÃÃo de conceitos de Vygotsky ([1934] 2000) e de Nelson (1998; 1986). Defendemos que a proposta de Nelson sobre o processamento cognitivo de crianÃas jovens, centrada no contexto de aÃÃo, nas experiÃncias cotidianas das crianÃas, pode contribuir para uma visÃo mais ampliada da natureza do processo de formaÃÃo de conceitos que a visÃo apresentada por Vygotsky que, mesmo defendendo a importÃncia do contexto na formaÃÃo dos conceitos, realizou seus experimentos utilizando-se de conceitos artificiais. Para verificarmos se os conceitos com o passar do tempo vÃo se tornando mais abstratos ou se, ainda, mostram-se, presos ao contexto do indivÃduo, ligados à memÃria de eventos (contextualizado), realizamos uma pesquisa com alunos do Ensino Fundamental e do Ensino MÃdio com o objetivo de compreender a natureza dos conceitos dos participantes. A tarefa experimental consistiu de uma atividade de definiÃÃo para os termos planta e animal e duas atividades de classificaÃÃo usando um conjunto de cartÃes, adaptado de Panofsky, John-Steiner e Blackwell (1996) que constou de vinte e uma (21) figuras (07 da categoria plantas e 14 da categoria animais). AtravÃs da anÃlise das definiÃÃes e justificativas para os agrupamentos de itens em categorias, pudemos verificar que nÃo hà uma Ãnica e exclusiva base para as conceitualizaÃÃes dos participantes, ou seja, nÃo hà predominÃncia de uma ou de outra categoria, e sim que seus conceitos sÃo formados a partir de pedaÃos de informaÃÃes internalizadas sobre o mundo quer sejam cotidianas quer sejam mais formais.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2017-03-24T19:11:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Stéfany Bruna de Brito Pimenta - 2017.pdf: 2835892 bytes, checksum: 04ed23aae51da4b6ed11f87fb367f29d (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-03-28T11:34:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Stéfany Bruna de Brito Pimenta - 2017.pdf: 2835892 bytes, checksum: 04ed23aae51da4b6ed11f87fb367f29d (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-28T11:34:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Stéfany Bruna de Brito Pimenta - 2017.pdf: 2835892 bytes, checksum: 04ed23aae51da4b6ed11f87fb367f29d (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-20 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás - FAPEG / This thesis aims to understand the conception of human development in Vygotskian theory and then, from such foundations, make considerations about the development of the child in sickness situation. While a theoretical research, the work was development through the study of some important works of Vygotsky that discuss about the human development and, specifically, the development of the child, which is "History of the development of the superior psychic functions"; "Problems of Child Psychology"; "Fundamentals of Defectology" and "Thought and Language". An exploratory bibliographical survey was also carried out with the objective of identifying other materials that contribute to the discussion of the subject in question. In the study of Vigotskian theory it was possible to identify fundamental concepts that allow a historical-cultural understanding of the development of the child and, consequently, base their problematization in diverse situations. It is identified that the conception of human development of the Vygotskian theory, based on dialectical historical materialism, breaks with biological dichotomies, determinisms and reductions, contributing to the construction of a dialectical approach in the field of health. Thus, from the understanding of some concepts that allow the understanding of the development of the child, such as "mediation", "experience", "social development situation", it became feasible to elaborate a theoretical essay that reflects aspects of the child’s development in the situation of physical illness. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the theoretical foundation of professionals and reseachers with interfaces between psychology and the health area, especially child’s health. / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo compreender a concepção de desenvolvimento humano na teoria vigotskiana para, a partir de tais fundamentos, tecer considerações a respeito do desenvolvimento da criança em situação de adoecimento. Enquanto uma pesquisa teórica, o trabalho foi desenvolvimento por meio do estudo de algumas importantes obras de Vigotski que discorrem acerca do desenvolvimento humano e, em específico, o desenvolvimento da criança, como “História do desenvolvimento das funções psíquicas superiores”; “Problemas de Psicologia Infantil”; “Fundamentos de Defectologia” e “Pensamento e linguagem”. Realizou-se também um levantamento bibliográfico exploratório com o objetivo de se identificar outros materiais que contribuam para a discussão da temática em questão. No estudo da teoria vigotskiana foi possível identificar conceitos fundamentais que possibilitam uma compreensão histórico-cultural da constituição e desenvolvimento da criança e, consequentemente, oferecem subsídios para a problematização deste desenvolvimento em situações diversas. Identifica-se que a concepção de desenvolvimento humano da teoria vigotskiana, fundamentada no materialismo histórico dialético, rompe com dicotomias, determinismos e reducionismos biológicos, contribuindo para a construção de um enfoque dialético no campo da saúde. Assim, a partir do entendimento de alguns conceitos que permitem a compreensão do desenvolvimento da criança, como por exemplo, “mediação”, “vivência”, “situação social de desenvolvimento”, tornou-se viável a elaboração de um ensaio teórico que reflete e redimensiona aspectos referentes ao desenvolvimento da criança na situação de adoecimento físico. Espera-se por meio desta pesquisa contribuir para o embasamento teórico de profissionais e estudiosos com interfaces entre a Psicologia e a área da saúde, sobretudo, a saúde da criança.

Esta tese procura identificar o conceito de cérebro na obra de Vigotski, analisando como este conceito relaciona-se com os fundamentos da psicologia histórico-cultural. A partir disso, discute possíveis implicações desse conceito para a educação, face a um cenário educacional onde as relações entre neurociência e educação recebem atenção crescente de ambos os campos. Trata-se de um trabalho teórico, baseado na produção teórica de Vigotski realizada no período de 1924 a 1934, ano de sua morte. Entre as dezenas de obras conhecidas do psicólogo bielorrusso, foram selecionados e analisados vinte textos nos quais o tema cérebro é abordado de forma mais particularizada. A partir dessa análise, pôde-se concluir que as teorias de Vigotski sobre o cérebro estão intrinsecamente relacionadas com os fundamentos da psicologia histórico-cultural. A abordagem vigotskiana do cérebro se deu de forma densa e inovadora, considerando o que se conhece atualmente a partir das descobertas da neurociência. Entre estas ideias, pode-se destacar a constituição da consciência a partir da internalização da experiência social, o funcionamento cerebral através de sistemas funcionais em oposição à visão localizacionista, os sinais como conexões extra-cerebrais de origem cultural e a defesa do monismo psicofísico, entre outros, caracterizando uma abordagem materialista da psique que entende o cérebro como a base material da consciência. Destaca-se a importância de considerar como parte da fundamentação da obra vigotskiana sua concepção sobre o humano enquanto organismo, o que não implica necessariamente em uma visão reducionista pelo contrário, a fundamentação filosófica materialista e marxista de Vigotski o exige. No que se refere à educação, debate-se a importância de reconhecer que a relação com a neurociência não deve servir como uma roupagem atual para a medicalização e patologização das relações escolares, ousando-se propor que, se alguma contribuição pode ser feita pela neurociência à educação, que seja a favor da defesa da potencialidade para o aprendizado de todos os alunos e alunas. / This thesis covers the concept of brain in the work of Vygotsky, analyzing how this concept relates to the foundations of cultural-historical psychology. It also discusses the possible educational implications of this approach, taking into account an educational setting where relationships between neuroscience and education receive increased attention from both camps. It is a theoretical work, based on Vygotsky\'s production in the period 1924 to 1934, the year of his death. Among the dozens of known works of the Belarusian psychologist, were selected and analyzed twenty texts in which the brain is the topic addressed in a more particularized. From this analysis, we concluded that Vygotsky\'s theories on the brain are deeply related to the foundations of cultural-historical psychology. His approach to the brain occurred in a dense and innovative, even considering what is currently known from the discoveries of neuroscience. Among these ideas, we can highlight the creation of consciousness from the internalization of social experience, brain function through functional systems as opposed to localizing view, the signals as extra-cerebral connections of cultural and defense of psychophysical monism, among other, featuring a materialist approach that understands the psyche of the brain as the material basis of consciousness. We emphasize the importance of considering as part of the grounds of its design work on the Vygotskyan as human body, which does not necessarily imply a reductionist view - on the contrary, the philosophical foundation of Marxist materialism and Vygotsky demands. In relation to education, debate the importance of recognizing that the relationship with neuroscience should not serve as a guise for the current medicalization and pathologizing school, daring to propose that if a contribution can be made by neuroscience to education, that is in favor of the defense capability for the learning of all pupils and students.

The situated approach in cognitive science and artificial intelligence (AI) has argued since the mid-1980s that intelligent behaviour emerges as a result of a close coupling between agent and environment. Lately, many researchers have emphasized that in addition to the physical environment, the social environment must not be neglected. In this thesis we will focus on the nature of social situatedness, and the aim of this dissertation is to investigate its role and relevance for natural and artificial intelligence. This thesis brings together work from separate areas, presenting different perspectives on the role and mechanisms social situatedness. More specifically, we will analyse Vygotsky's cognitive development theory, studies of primate (and avian) intelligence, and last, but not least, work in contemporary socially situated AI. These, at a first glance, quite different fields have a lot in common since they particularly stress the importance of social embeddedness for the development of individual intelligence. Combining these separate perspectives, we analyse the remaining differences between natural and artificial social situatedness. Our conclusion is that contemporary socially artificial intelligence research, although heavily inspired by empirical findings in human infants, tends to lack the developmental dimension of situatedness. Further we discuss some implications for research in cognitive science and AI.

Inom området barnets utveckling borde pedagogiken och kognitionsvetenskapen samarbeta. Pedagogikinriktningen Reggio Emilia påstår bygga sin verksamhet på delar av bland annat Vygotskys teorier. I denna rapport utvärderas detta påstående utifrån frågan: Har förskollärarna inom Reggio Emilia-förskolan stöd hos Vygotskys teorier när det gäller deras roll i barnets vardagsspråkliga utveckling. Reggio Emilia-inriktningens och Vygotskys åsikter om språk och lärarens roll analyseras och jämförs med ett hermeneutiskt angreppssätt. Analysen visar att det finns skillnader mellan Reggio Emilia-inriktningens syn på förskollärarens roll när det gäller barnets vardagsspråkliga utveckling och Vygotskys teorier inom området. Trots skillnaderna visar ändå analysen att Reggio Emilia-inriktningen har fått stora influenser ifrån Vygotsky. Resultatet visar således att även om stödet från Vygotskys teorier inte är hundraprocentigt så finns det där. Undersökningen visar också att pedagogiken och kognitionsvetenskapen kan samarbeta framgångsrikt.

Inner speech has been implicated in Vygotsky´s theory of cognitive development. Converging evidence suggests that language skills as well as self-directed speech, in particular inner speech, is important for cognitive functions. However, the role of self-directed speech (including inner speech) in the relation between language skills and cognition have remained unclear. Despite a growing body of studies on the neural substrate of inner and overt speech, evidences of the neural differences between inner and overt speech have remained diffuse. The present dissertation aimed at filling the gap by investigating inner speech and its process of internalization with behavioral and neuroscientific methods. One study addressed the role of self-directed speech in the interplay between language skills and cognition by using the Tower of London task in children. Two studies addressed the neural correlates of the differences between inner and overt speech in adults and children during a picture-naming task by simultaneously applying the electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results of the first study confirmed that the internalization of speech is related to children´s cognition although it cannot explain the relation between language skills and problem-solving. The second study showed that inner speech is not overt speech without articulation, even more it is that prior phonological processes are downregulated. Moreover, the study showed that the brain differentiates between inner and overt speech even when no linguistic and motoric process is necessary. The results of the third study showed less differences between inner and overt speech in children indicating that inner speech is not yet adult-like. Even more it seems that inner speech represents linguistically the same like overt speech in the children´s brain.:Table of Content Danksagung VIII Bibliographische Darstellung X Zusammenfassung XI Summary XVI Theoretical Part 1 1 Introduction and Overview 2 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 Theoretical Background 4 1.3 Development of Inner Speech 15 1.4 Behavioral Significance of Inner Speech 17 1.4.1 The Link between Inner Speech and Cognition 18 1.4.2 The Link between Inner Speech and Language 22 1.4.3 The Link between Language Skills and Cognition 23 1.5 Psycholinguistic and Biological Significance of Inner Speech 25 1.5.1 Speech Production Model 27 1.5.2 Differences between Inner and Overt Speech in the Brain 32 1.6 Overview of the Goals and Research Questions 42 2 Study Designs and Methodologies 46 2.1 Behavioral Methods 46 2.1.1 Tower of London 46 2.2 Neuroscientific Methods 51 2.2.1 Electroencephalography 52 2.2.1.1 Physiological Principles of the EEG 52 2.2.1.2 Technical Principles of the EEG 55 2.2.1.3 EEG Frequency Bands 57 2.2.1.4 Event-related Brain Potentials (ERPs) 58 2.2.2 Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy 59 2.2.2.1 Physical Principles of the fNIRS 59 2.2.2.2 Physiological Principles of the fNIRS 65 2.2.2.3 Technical Principles of the fNIRS - Measurement Setup 66 Empirical Part 68 Preliminary Note 69 3 Study 1 - The role of self-directed speech in problem-solving 70 3.1 Introduction 70 3.1.1 The Association between Language Skills and Executive Functions 71 3.1.2 The association between language skills and use of self-directed speech 72 3.1.3 The role of self-directed speech in Executive Functions 73 3.1.3.1 Quantitative and qualitative analysis of self-directed speech 73 3.1.3.2 Dual-task method 74 3.1.3.3 Triggering self-directed speech 75 3.2 The present study 76 3.3 Material and Method 78 3.3.1 Participants 78 3.3.2 General procedure 79 3.3.3 Measures 79 3.3.3.1 Language Skills 79 3.3.3.2 Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary 79 3.3.3.3 Expressive Grammar 80 3.3.3.4 Receptive Grammar 80 3.3.3.5 Non-verbal intelligence (IQ) 81 3.3.3.6 Complex EF (problem-solving ability) 81 3.3.4 Coding speech 84 3.3.4.1 Quantity 85 3.3.4.2 Quality: Internalization 85 3.3.4.3 Quality: Spatial language 86 3.3.4.4 Quality: Planning function 86 3.3.4.5 Quality: Grammatical completeness 87 3.3.4.6 Interrater reliability 87 3.4 Results 88 3.4.1 Preliminary analyses 88 3.4.1.1 Factor analysis 88 3.4.1.2 Bivariate Correlations between all study measures 88 3.4.2 Main analyses 90 3.4.2.1 H1: Relation between language skills and problem-solving 90 3.4.2.2 RQ: Role of self-directed speech 91 3.4.2.2.1 RQ1: Mediation effect of self-directed speech 91 3.4.2.2.2 RQ2: Susceptibility to articulatory suppression 95 3.4.2.2.3 RQ3: Prompting self-directed speech 96 3.5 Discussion 99 3.5.1 Limitations and Next Steps 105 3.5.2 Conclusion 107 4 Study 2 - Differences between inner and overt speech in adults 108 4.1 Introduction 108 4.2 Material and Method 114 4.2.1 Participants 114 4.2.2 Material 114 4.2.3 Tasks and Procedure 115 4.3 NIRS/EEG Data Recordings 117 4.3.1 fNIRS Data Recording 117 4.3.2 EEG Data Recording 118 4.4 Data analyses 119 4.4.1 fNIRS Data Analyses 119 4.4.2 EEG Data Analyses 120 4.5 Results 121 4.5.1 fNIRS results 121 4.5.2 EEG results 122 4.6 Discussion 127 4.7 Conclusions 131 5 Study 3 - Differences between inner and overt speech in children 133 5.1 Introduction 133 5.2 Material and Method 138 5.2.1 Participants 138 5.2.2 Material 139 5.2.3 Tasks and Procedure 139 5.3 NIRS/EEG Data Recordings 141 5.3.1 fNIRS Data Recording 141 5.3.2 EEG Data Recording 143 5.4 Data analyses 143 5.4.1 fNIRS Data: Analyses 143 5.4.2 EEG Data Analyses 144 5.5 Results 145 5.5.1 fNIRS results 145 5.5.2 EEG results 146 5.6 Discussion 146 5.7 Conclusion 150 6 General Discussion 151 6.1 What role does self-directed and inner speech play in the relation between language and cognition in children? 152 6.1.1 Quantitative and qualitative analyses of self-directed speech 152 6.1.2 Articulatory suppression of self-directed speech 155 6.1.3 Triggering self-directed speech 158 6.1.4 Conclusion 159 6.2 What distinguishes inner speech from external (overt) speech in adults? 160 6.2.1 Preparation phase 161 6.2.2 Execution phase 162 6.2.3 Conclusion 164 6.3 What distinguishes inner speech from external (overt) speech in children? 164 6.3.1 Preparation phase 165 6.3.2 Execution phase 167 6.3.3 Conclusion 169 6.4 Limitations and Future Research 169 6.5 Conclusion 176 7 References 179 Appendices 212 Coding Manual of Self-Directed Speech 213 Coding scheme 213 Coding Speech 214 Quantity of Private Speech 214 Quality of Private Speech 216 Speech Structure 216 Content Functions 218 Syntactic Features 221 Publications and Conference Contributions 222 Selbstständigkeitserklärung 225