Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Cognitive Writing Research to Cognitive Psychology

This volume tells the story of research on the cognitive processes of writing―from the perspectives of the early pioneers, the contemporary contributors, and visions of the future for the field.

Writing processes yield important insights into human cognition, and is increasingly becoming a mainstream topic of investigation in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Technological advances have made it possible to study cognitive writing processes as writing unfolds in real time. This book provides an introduction to these technologies.

The first part of the volume provides the historical context for the significance of writing research for contemporary cognitive psychology and honors the pioneers in cognitive and social-cognitive research in this field. The book then explores the rapidly expanding work on the social foundations of cognitive processes in writing and considers not only gender differences but also gender similarities in writing. The third part presents a lifespan view of writing in early and middle childhood, adolescence, higher education, and the world of work. There follows an examination of the relationships of language processes –at the word, sentence, and text levels―to the cognitive processes in writing. Part V covers representative research on the cognitive processes of writing―translation and reviewing and revision―and the working memory mechanisms that support those processes. A review of the current technologies used to study these cognitive processes on-line as they happen in real time is provided. Part VII provides an introduction to the emerging new field of the cognitive neuroscience of writing made possible by the rapidly evolving brain imaging technologies, which are interpretable in reference to paradigms in cognitive psychology of writing. The final section of the book offers visions of the future of writing research from the perspective of contemporary leaders in writing research.

Virginia Wise Berninger received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins in 1981 (specialization in cognitive psychology and developmental psycholinguistics). She has been on faculties at Harvard Medical School (1981-1983), Tufts New England School of Medicine (1983-1986), and the University of Washington (1986 to present), where she is currently Professor of Educational Psychology (Learning Sciences). She was Principal Investigator of NICHD-funded research projects on writing―typical writing development and effective writing instruction for at-risk and disabled writers (1989-2008, Literacy Trek and brain imaging of typically developing writers and children with dysgraphia) and specific written language learning disabilities (1995-2006, University of Washington Interdisciplinary Learning Disabilities Center, UW LDC, family genetics, brain imaging, and treatment of writing problems in dyslexia). She directs the University Brain Education and Technology (UBET) group, which is currently investigating computer-assisted instruction in writing with support from the Binational Science Foundation in collaboration with Dr. Zvia Breznitz, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center, University of Haifa, Israel. She teaches courses in normal brain development and educational applications, brain disorders in learning and behavior, and writing (and reading and math) instruction with the brain in mind; she also advises Ph.D. students in Learning Sciences. Her research interests include the bidirectional cognitive linguistic translation processes involving four functional language systems (language by ear, mouth, eye, and hand), each organized by levels (subword, word, syntax, text), and three word forms (phonological, morphological, and/or orthographic) as the human brain interacts with the social and physical environment.