Michael Siegal (March 30, 1950 – February 20, 2012) was a developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist who was Marie Curie Chair in Psychology at the University of Trieste, Italy, and also a Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, UK.
His empirical research sought to determine how access to language, language acquisition, and participation in conversation influence cognitive processes in developmentSiegal, M. (2004). Neuroscience. Signposts to the essence of language. Science, 305(5691), 1720-1721.Siegal, M., & Surian, L. (2011). Access to Language and Cognitive Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. and their breakdown in adulthood following brain injury,Surian, L., & Siegal, M. (2001). Sources of performance on theory of mind tasks in right hemisphere damaged patients. Brain and Language, 78, 224–232. especially in the areas of numerical, spatial, social, and moral cognition.Siegal, M., & Beattie, K. (1991). Where to look first for children's knowledge of false beliefs. Cognition, 38(1), 1-12. Siegal, M., & Surian, L. (2004). Conceptual development and conversational understanding. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 534–538.Siegal, M. (2008). Marvelous Minds: The Discovery of What Children Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This work was carried out in different culturesSiegal, M., Butterworth, G., & Newcombe, P. A. (2004). Culture and children's cosmology. Developmental Science, 7(3), 308-324. and involves monolingual and bilingual children,Siegal, M. et al. (2010). Bilingualism accentuates children's conversational understanding. PLoS ONE, Feb 3, 5(2):e9004. Epub Siegal, M., Iozzi, L., & Surian, L. (2009). Bilingualism and conversational understanding in young children. Cognition, 110, 115–122. atypically developing children such as deaf children,Woolfe, T., Want, S. C., & Siegal, M. (2002). Signposts to development: theory of mind in deaf children. Child Development, 73(3), 768-778.Woolfe, T., Want, S. C., & Siegal, M. (2003). Siblings and theory of mind in deaf native signing children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8(3), 340-347. and children and adults with aphasia.Siegal, M., & Varley, R. (2006). Aphasia, language, and theory of mind. Social Neuroscience, 1(3-4), 167-174.
Having completed his D. Phil. at the University of Oxford, he worked as an academic at the University of Queensland from 1979 to 1997.
Selected bibliography Fairness in Children (Academic Press, 1982) Children, Parenthood, and Social Welfare in the Context of Developmental Psychology (Oxford University Press, 1985) Knowing Children (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991) Children's Understanding of Biology and Health with Candida Peterson (Cambridge University Press, 1999) The Cognitive Basis of Science with Peter Carruthers and Stephen Stich (Cambridge University Press, 2002) Marvelous Minds: The Discovery of What Children Know. (Oxford University Press, 2008) Access to Language and Cognitive Development. with Luca Surian (Oxford University Press, 2011)
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External links https://web.archive.org/web/20090228143820/http://alacode.psico.units.it/index.html