ABSTRACT

M. K. Moore and A. N. Meltzoff begin by discussing the development of imitation in relation to the development of the representational system. In discussing the role of cognition in language development, Moore and Meltzoff state that many developmental psychologists accept a Piagetian position with respect to the necessity of cognitive precursors to language development. In a conceptualistic theory of cognitive development, the various expressions of tool use are based on an underlying concept that functions as their instrumental or procedural condition, meanwhile representing the basic content or 'meaning' of the tool using activities. The underlying computational language which J. A. Fodor has postulated can be considered a representational system by somebody who employs a theory of underlying representations. The infant has to develop a system of internal representation in which objects are represented in terms of object identity and permanence.