Questions about the relationship between social cognition and social behaviour: The search for the missing link.

Abstract

Questions about the nature of socio-cognitive skills and their relationship to social behavior are probably among the most important tissues which have been raised by recent research on the development of social competence. The research context in which the question of the relationship between cognition and behavior has arisen with particular acuity within the field of social-cognitive development is described. Following a selective review of some of the studies emanating from this author''s research program, concerning the specific issue of the relations between the level of social cognition in the child and the adequacy of the child''s social interactions in a naturalistic setting, the potential flaws and limits of original ways of measuring and conceptualizing these relations are examined. A sketch of the conditions that need to be considered for specific types of social behavior to be regulated by particular aspects of cognition is presented.