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The Neurocognitive Developmental Laboratory (NDL) is a research group, in the discipline of Psychology within the School of Population Health, at Curtin University. Our primary research goal is to examine the sources of differences in cognitive ability. That is, we wish to understand the mechanisms that account for the differences in ability between people of the same age (individual differences) and the differences in ability between people of different ages (cognitive development). For example, we are interested in examining what underlies variability on tests of academic achievement, standardised measures of intelligence, problem solving, reasoning, and language development. We are also interested in examining the basis of cognitive variability observed in developmental disorders (such as, specific language impairments, autism and Down’s syndrome), as well as what may account for particular patterns of breakdown in adult cognition (e.g., following brain trauma, or disease).
Studies using empirical methodologies that are designed to target the specific genetic or neural correlates of cognitive variability offer increasingly important sources of evidence on what such mechanisms may be. However, in order to interpret how these mechanisms may influence cognitive change, we argue it is essential that their study is placed within a theoretical and cognitive framework – crucially, one that specifies what the developmental process is (see, Karmiloff-Smith, 1998). For example, while recent neuroscience studies have shown that during some stages in children’s development, change in grey matter density, within specific brain regions, is positively correlated with change in measures of intelligence (Ramsden, et al., 2011), this raises the question: How does having more densely packed neurons lead to more intelligent behaviour? Although some cognitive theories do posit a role of cognitive capacity, in accounting for more, or less intelligent behaviour, exactly what form this property takes, at a neurocomputational level, remains unclear.
Computational modelling approaches, offer one way of assessing cognitive accounts of the candidate mechanisms underlying variability. Thus, another important part of our research approach involves the use of computer models. We use dynamic systems theory, symbolic and connectionist approaches (where appropriate) to flesh out verbal theory and to provide explicit tests of the mechanisms underlying variability. These different computational methodologies, provide a way of testing precisely how change unfolds over time, and what the relative influences are of each part of the implemented theory.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of many other researchers. In particular, we are deeply indebted to, Michael Thomas, Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Denis Mareschal, Mark Johnson, Richard Cooper, Rob Leech, Fred Dick, and Mike Anderson, for their valuable contributions and continued influence on our thinking.
References:
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1998). Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(10), 389-398.
Ramsden, S., Richardson, F. M., Josse, G., Thomas, M. S., Ellis, C., Shakeshaft, C., Seghier, M., & Price, C. J. (2011). Verbal and non-verbal intelligence changes in the teenage brain. Nature, 479(7371), 113-6.
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