Parent-child mediated learning interactions as determinants of cognitive modifiability: Recent research and future directions

The main objectives of this article are to describe the effects of mediated learning experience (MLE) strategies in mother-child interactions on the c hild's cognitive modifiability, the effects of distal factors (e.g., socioe conomic status, mother's intelligence, child's personality) on MLE interact ions, and the effects of situational variables on MLE processes. Methodolog ical aspects of measurement of MLE interactions and of cognitive modifiabil ity, using a dynamic assessment approach, are discussed. Studies with infan ts showed that the quality of mother-infant MLE interactions predict later cognitive functioning and that MLE patterns and children's cognitive perfor mance change as a result of intervention programs. Studies with preschool a nd school-aged children showed that MLE interactions predict cognitive modi fiability and that distal factors predict MLE interactions but not the chil d's cognitive modifiability. The child's cognitive modifiability was predic ted by MLE interactions in a structured but not in a free-play situation. M ediation for transcendence (e.g., teaching rules and generalizations) appea red to be the strongest predictor of children's cognitive modifiability. Di scussion of future research includes the consideration of a holistic transa ctional approach, which refers to MLE processes, personality, and motivatio nal-affective factors, the cultural context of mediation, perception of the whole family as a mediational unit, and the "mediational normative scripts ."