The originality of Langer's approach to cognitive
development (Langer, 1980, 1986) lies in the study of
the pragmatic components (actions, object manipulations)
of protologicomathematical and protophysical
cognition before the age of 2. This perspective falls in
line with Piaget's constructive psychology

Houdé, Pr O

Vauclair, Pr O

English

CogPrints Cognitive Sciences Eprint Archive

Co-ordination of actions, visual perception, and inhibition in human and non-human primate development

Cognitive Sciences ePrint Archive

Coordination of actions, visual perception and inhibition in
non-human and human primate development
Jacques Vauclair 1 and Olivier Houde 2
1. PsyCLE, Université de Provence, France
2. Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle and Université Paris 5, France
The originality of Langer's approach to cognitive
development (Langer, 1980, 1986) lies in the study of
the pragmatic components (actions, object manipula-
tions) of protologicomathematical and protophysical
cognition before the age of 2. This perspective falls in
line with Piaget's constructive psychology.
In this target article, Langer proposes an overview of
his work on the comparative psychology of non-human
primates, a field that, like the study of human infants,
i nvestigates `thought without language'. His thesis is a
very strong one: the origin of constructive protologic
and protophysics does not depend upon enculturation
and language (symbolic) rearing by humans. Cognition,
logicomathematical as well as physical, is an original
development of all primates. Human enculturation and
language are not required!
We believe that Langer's approach can be criticized
on his use of findings and concepts of both comparative
psychology of cognition and developmental psychology.
Coordination of action schemes in non-human
primates
As concerns non-human primates, comparative devel-
opmental studies of object manipulations in these
Address for correspondence: 7. Vauclair, PsyCLE, Centre for Research in Psychology of Cognition, Language & Emotion, UFR de Psychologie, Université
de Provence, 29 av Robert Schuman, 13621 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 1, France; e-mail: Vauclair@up.univ-aix.fr
Developmental Science, 3, 382-384 (2000).
animal species reveal that these manipulations differ
from those performed by human infants in terms of both
their goals and complexity. In effect, most of the
observed manipulations in non-human primates corre-
spond to the Piagetian secondary reactions (e.g. simple
holding or moving schemes: see Spinozzi & Natale,
1986, for studies with macaques and chimpanzees) with
sometimes, for chimpanzees, tertiary circular reactions
(e.g. mostly through the use of the dropping scheme:
Mathieu & Bergeron, 1981). For example, a study
examining three 8-11-month-old chimpanzees (includ-
ing the bonobo Kanzi) and a human infant of the same
age showed that chimpanzees indeed performed multiple
manipulations with objects. But, in the apes, these
manipulations mostly consisted of simple holding or
moving an object against a substrate (Vauclair & Bard,
1983; see also Poti & Spinozzi, 1994). By contrast, the
human infant more frequently detached an object from
the background and, furthermore, moved the object or
explored its unique characteristics. It is likely that this
frequent extraction of objects by human infants, but not
by ape infants, helps the human infant develop superior
abilities for manipulation and combination of objects
(Vauclair, 1984).
As a consequence, the young apes (and a fortiori the
young monkeys) do not develop the same type of object-
oriented behaviours as the human infant, this is not to
say that these primates have not evolved sophisticated
cognitive tools to deal with the challenges of life. But
such tools are obviously not a strict extension of these
primates' abilities to construct larger sets of objects with
age. Most generally, modern comparative psychology is
less concerned with the study of logicomathematical
cognition than with cognitive skills expressed in
perceptual learning of adaptive behaviours: e.g. categor-
ization (Bovet & Vauclair, 1998), cognitive mapping and
social strategies (see references in Vauclair, 1996;
Tomasello & Call, 1997).
Visual perception and learning versus
logicomathematical coordination of actions
Child psychology during the 1980s and 1990s is
characterized in particular by the discovery of the
important role of visual perception in knowledge
construction by infants. On this specific point, Langer,
like Piaget, grants a minor role to perception compared
with action (e.g. `Cognitive development that can be
produced by perceptual as compared to sensorimotor
acts is extremely limited' (p. 364; see also Schlesinger &
Langer, 1999) - hence Langer's techniques consisting of
observing the object manipulation and action sequences
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000
Commentaries 383
of human and non-human primates. However, contrary
to this classical conception of cognitive development,
current findings in infant psychology suggest that there
exist protophysical (Baillargeon, 1995; Spelke, Vishton
& von Hofsten, 1995) and protoarithmetic (Wynn, 1992,
1998) reasoning mechanisms that are associated with a
powerful ability to learn through visual perception.
Note that similar involvement of high-level perceptual
representations might also operate in the mastery of
comparable skills by monkeys (e.g. in numerical cogni-
tion: Hauser, Macneilage & Ware, 1996; Brannon &
Terrace, 1998). In this respect, modern comparative
psychology and infant psychology converge in their
emphasis on the role of perceptual activity for cognitive
skills more than that of logicomathematical coordina-
tions of actions d la Langer.
Relationship between cognitive development and
inhibition
One of the current criticisms of Piagetian and neo-
Piagetian models (e.g. Case, Fischer, Halford etc.; see
Demetriou, 1988) is that they are all models of the
coordination or co-activation of structural units rather
than models of selection inhibition. Yet many cognitive
psychologists working in a wide range of logicomathe-
matical as well as physical domains including object
construction, number, categorization and reasoning
(Bjorklund & Harnishfeger, 1990; Dempster, 1995;
Diamond, 1991; Harnishfeger. 1995; Houdé, 1999, in
press) have shown that cognitive development can be
conceived of not only as the progressive acquisition of
knowledge (or structural units), but also as the enhanced
inhibition of reactions that get in the way of already
acquired knowledge. The new models of development
proposed in this perspective are essentially based on the
concepts of inefficient/efficient cognitive and behaviour-
al inhibition (Diamond, Harnishfeger and Houdé) and
resistance to interference (Dempster). Seen from this
new angle, Langer's comparative approach centred on
the coordination or co-activation of structural units
(combinativity operations) is still largely Piagetian,
while inhibition is now regarded as a key process in an
evolutionary framework (Bjorklund, 1997; Bjorklund &
Harnishfeger, 1995), a kind of `Darwinian algorithm' as
Cosmides and Tooby would say (1987).
The roles of these two important adaptive processes,
visual perception learning and cognitive and behaviour-
al inhibition, along with limitations in the transposition
to primates of a strict Piagetian framework should be
incorporated into Langer's model to make it fit better
into today's child and comparative psychology.
38 4 Commentaries
References
Baillargeon, R. (1995). Physical reasoning in infancy. In M.S.
Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (pp. 181-204).
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bjorklund, D.F. (1997). In search of a metatheory for cognitive
development (or, Piaget is dead and I don't feel so good).
Child Development, 68, 144-148.
Bjorklund, D.F., & Harnishfeger, K.K. (1990). The resources
construct in cognitive development: diverse sources of
evidence and a theory of inefficient inhibition. Develop-
mental Review, 7, 93-130.
Bjorklund, D.F., & Harnishfeger, K.K. (1995). The evolution
of inhibition mechanisms and their role in human cognition
and behavior. In F.N. Dempster & C.J. Brainerd (Eds),
Interference and inhibition in cognition (pp. 141-173). New
York: Academic Press.
Bovet, D., & Vauclair, J. (1998). Functional categorization of
objects and of their pictures in baboons (Papio anubis).
Learning and Motivation, 29, 309-322.
Brannon, E.M., & Terrace, H.S. (1998). Ordering of the
numerosities 1 to 9 by monkeys. Science, 282, 746-749.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1987). From evolution to behavior:
evolutionary psychology as the missing link. In J. Dupre
(Ed.), The lastest on the best essays on evolution and
optimality (pp. 277-306). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Demetriou, A. (Ed.) (1988). The neo-Piagetian theories of
cognitive development. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Dempster, F.N. (1995). Interference and inhibition in cogni-
tion: an historical perspective. In F.N. Dempster & C.J.
Brainerd (Eds), Interference and inhibition in cognition (pp.
3-26). New York: Academic Press.
Diamond, A. (1991). Neuropsychological insights into the
meaning of object concept development. In S. Carey & R.
Gelman (Eds), The epigenesis ofmind: Essays on biology and
cognition (pp. 67-110). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Harnishfeger, K.K. (1995). The development of cognitive
inhibition. In F.N. Dempster & C.J. Brainerd (Eds),
Interference and inhibition in cognition (pp. 175-204). New
York: Academic Press.
Hauser, M., Macneilage, P., & Ware, M. (1996). Numerical
representations in primates. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 93, 1514-1517.
Houdé, O. (1999). Executive performance/competence, and
C Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000
inhibition in cognitive development. Developmental Science,
2, 273-275.
Houdé, O. (in press). Inhibition and cognitive development:
object, number, categorization, and reasoning. Cognitive
Development.
Langer, J. (1980). The origins of logic: Six to twelve months.
New York: Academic Press.
Langer, J. (1986). The origins of logic: One to two years. New
York: Academic Press.
Mathieu, M., & Bergeron, G. (1981). Piagetian assessment on
cognitive development in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In
A.B. Chiarelli & R.S. Coruccini (Eds), Primate behavior and
sociobiology (pp. 142-147). New York: Springer.
Poti, P., & Spinozzi, G. (1994). Early sensorimotor develop-
ment in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Compara-
tive Psychology, 108, 93-103.
Schlesinger, M., & Langer, J. (1999). Infants' developing
expectations of possible and impossible tool-use events
between ages 8 and 12 months. Developmental Science, 2,
195-205.
Spelke, E., Vishton P., & yon Hofsten, C. (1995). Object
perception, object-directed action, and physical knowledge
in infancy. In M.S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neuro-
sciences (pp. 165-179). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Spinozzi, G., & Natale, F. (1986). The interaction between
prehension and locomotion in macaque, gorilla and child
cognitive development. In J.G. Else & P.C. Lee (Eds),
Primate ontogeny, cognition and social behaviour (pp. 155-
160). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tomasello, M., & Call, J. (1997). Primate Cognition. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Vauclair, J. (1984). A phylogenetic approach to object
manipulation in human and nonhuman primates. Human
Development, 27, 321-328.
Vauclair, J. (1996). Animal cognition: recent developments in
modern comparative psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Vauclair, J., & Bard, K.A. (1983). Development of manipula-
tions with objects in ape and human infants. Journal of
Human Evolution, 12, 631-645.
Wynn, K. (1992). Addition and subtraction by human infants.
Nature, 358, 749-750.
Wynn, K. (1998). Psychological foundations of number:
numerical competence in human infants. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 2, 296-303.


A phylogenetic approach to object manipulation in human and nonhuman primates.

Addition and subtraction by human infants.

Animal cognition: recent developments in modern comparative psychology.

Development of manipulations with objects in ape and human infants.

Early sensorimotor development in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Executive performance/competence, and C Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

From evolution to behavior: evolutionary psychology as the missing link. In

Functional categorization of objects and of their pictures in baboons (Papio anubis).

In search of a metatheory for cognitive development (or, Piaget is dead and I don't feel so good).

Infants' developing expectations of possible and impossible tool-use events between ages 8 and 12 months.

Interference and inhibition in cognition: an historical perspective.

Neuropsychological insights into the meaning of object concept development. In

Numerical representations in primates.

Object perception, object-directed action, and physical knowledge in infancy.

Ordering of the numerosities 1 to 9 by monkeys.

Physical reasoning in infancy.

Piagetian assessment on cognitive development in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Primate Cognition.

Psychological foundations of number: numerical competence in human infants.

The development of cognitive inhibition.

The evolution of inhibition mechanisms and their role in human cognition and behavior.

The interaction between prehension and locomotion in macaque, gorilla and child cognitive development.

The neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development.

The origins of logic: One to two years.

The origins of logic: Six to twelve months.

The resources construct in cognitive development: diverse sources of evidence and a theory of inefficient inhibition.

Co-ordination of actions, visual perception, and inhibition in human and non-human primate development

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

CogPrints Cognitive Sciences Eprint Archive

Cognitive Sciences ePrint Archive