Michael Siegal

Not to be confused with Michael Segal.

Michael Siegal, PhD, DSc (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 development[1][2] and their breakdown in adulthood following brain injury,[3] especially in the areas of numerical, spatial, social, and moral cognition.[4][5][6] This work was carried out in different cultures[7] and involves monolingual and bilingual children,[8][9] atypically developing children such as deaf children,[10][11] and children and adults with aphasia.[12]

Having completed his D. Phil. at the University of Oxford, he worked as an academic at the University of Queensland from 1979 to 1997.[13]

  1. ^ Siegal, M. (2004). Neuroscience. Signposts to the essence of language. Science, 305(5691), 1720-1721.
  2. ^ Siegal, M., & Surian, L. (2011). Access to Language and Cognitive Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ Surian, L., & Siegal, M. (2001). Sources of performance on theory of mind tasks in right hemisphere damaged patients. Brain and Language, 78, 224–232.
  4. ^ Siegal, M., & Beattie, K. (1991). Where to look first for children's knowledge of false beliefs. Cognition, 38(1), 1-12. [1]
  5. ^ Siegal, M., & Surian, L. (2004). Conceptual development and conversational understanding. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 534–538.
  6. ^ Siegal, M. (2008). Marvelous Minds: The Discovery of What Children Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  7. ^ Siegal, M., Butterworth, G., & Newcombe, P. A. (2004). Culture and children's cosmology. Developmental Science, 7(3), 308-324.
  8. ^ Siegal, M. et al. (2010). Bilingualism accentuates children's conversational understanding. PLoS ONE, Feb 3, 5(2):e9004. Epub [2]
  9. ^ Siegal, M., Iozzi, L., & Surian, L. (2009). Bilingualism and conversational understanding in young children. Cognition, 110, 115–122.
  10. ^ Woolfe, T., Want, S. C., & Siegal, M. (2002). Signposts to development: theory of mind in deaf children. Child Development, 73(3), 768-778.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Siegal, M., & Varley, R. (2006). Aphasia, language, and theory of mind. Social Neuroscience, 1(3-4), 167-174.
  13. ^ "Siegal Michael". Academy of Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-22.