Agenda 2000 - Communication: language as an implementational device for cognition

The aim of this paper is to identify the functions of social cognition in a communication context. It is argued that social cognition is for the regul ation of adaptive action and makes use of external devices (e.g. language) to implement action. First, the complexity of communication as a social ach ievement is discussed to prepare the ground for examining the link between language, cognition and communication. The implementational devices (langua ge) of social cognition are addressed next. On the basis of these considera tions a message-modulation model is proposed to conceptualize the interplay between language, cognition, motivation and communication. The application of this model to research on the transmission and maintenance of stereotyp es illustrates the types of open research issues and directions that may be possible routes for future work. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd .