ABSTRACT
Several studies at the Urban Child Center of the University of Chicago are designed to describe the maternal influences that shape, or socialize, the cognitive behavior of children. The major study, nearing completion, is an examination of the effect of maternal behavior upon the growth and structure of the child's thinking and upon his orientation toward the school and formal classroom learning. The chapter argues that the development of thought—that is, strategies for dealing with information and with one's own inclination to act—is most usefully considered in terms of its relationship to the social and cultural structures in which it occurs. These considerations lead to different related arguments which constitute the conceptual context of the study. First, that strategies for processing information and for dealing with the environment, whether they lead to cultural deprivation or poverty or to affluence, are learned. Second, that a significant part of this learning typically takes place in the early interaction between mother and child.
