Private speech on an executive task: Relations with task difficulty and task performance

Fernyhough, C; Fradley, E

doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.11.002

Private speech on an executive task: Relations with task difficulty and task performance

Fernyhough, C; Fradley, E

Authors

Professor Charles Fernyhough c.p.fernyhough@durham.ac.uk
Professor

E Fradley

Abstract

Measures of private speech and task performance were obtained for a sample of 46 5- and 6-year-olds engaged on a mechanical version of the Tower of London (ToL) task. Two different sets of four puzzles of increasing difficulty were attempted on two occasions. In line with Vygotskian predictions, there was a quadratic relation between private speech and task difficulty, but no evidence of a shift towards self-regulatory sub-types of private speech with increasing task difficulty. Levels of self-regulatory private speech were significantly related to concurrent, but not subsequent, task performance. We discuss the significance of these findings for the Vygotskian view that private speech has an adaptive function in the self-regulation of behaviour.

Citation

Fernyhough, C., & Fradley, E. (2005). Private speech on an executive task: Relations with task difficulty and task performance. Cognitive Development, 20(1), 103-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.11.002

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	2005-01
Deposit Date	Feb 26, 2009
Publicly Available Date	Feb 26, 2009
Journal	Cognitive Development
Print ISSN	0885-2014
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	20
Issue	1
Pages	103-120
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.11.002
Keywords	Private speech, Self-regulation, Task difficulty, Task performance, Vygotsky's theory.