Motivation, Emotion, and Cognition : Integrative Perspectives On Intellectual Functioning and Development

(BA 44, 45, 47) and, in more effortful tasks, dorsolateral (BA 9, 46, 9/46) re-

gions (Goldman-Rakic, 1995; Jonides et al., 1997; Klingberg, Forssberg, &

Westerberg, 2002; Rypma, Berger, & D’Esposito, 2002; Szameitat et al.,

2002). Klingberg et al. (2002) showed positive correlations between age (from

9 to 18 years) and amount of activity specific to a visuospatial working mem-

ory task, in the superior frontal sulcus (possibly BA 8, 9 and 46). We believe

thatM-capacity is the functional brain organization that underlies what

Posner (Posner & DiGirolamo, 1998; Rothbart & Posner, 2001) called execu-

tive attention. However, neuroscience cannot today clearly distinguish be-

tween executive processes (such as executive schemes) and the general-

8. AFFECT, SELF-MOTIVATION, AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 207

TABLE 8.1

The Sensorimotor Period (Six Substages)

Expected
M-Capacity Landmark Performances

1. Me = 0 The use of reflexes (0–1 mo)


2. Me = 1 Acquired adaptations & primary circular reaction (1–4 mos)


3. Me = 2 Beginning of secondary circular reactions & procedures for making interest-
   ing sights last (4–8 mos)


4. Me = 3 Coordination of secondary schemes & application of schemes to new situa-
   tions (8–12 mos)


5. Me = 4 Beginning of tertiary circular reactions & discovery of new means by active
   experimentation (12–18 mos)


6. Me = 5 Invention of new means through mental combinations (18–26 mos). Execu-
   tive performance representation is not possible until this stage. Five or
   four units are needed to spontaneously construct an executive.


7. Me = 6 Transition to mental processing (26–34 mos)


8. Me = 7 Early preoperational period (34–59 mos). The child is able to mobilize an ex-
   ecutive and relate one symbolic scheme to another. The child has anM-ca-
   pacity ofMe=7,orMk=e+1.

TABLE 8.2

M-Levels in the Mental Period: Ideal MaximalM-Power Values

as a Function of Age (Years) and Correspondence

to the Piagetian Substage Sequence

M-Capacity
(e + k) Piagetian Substage

Normative

Chronological Age

e + 1 Low preoperations 3, 4
e + 2 High preoperations 5, 6
e + 3 Low concrete operations 7, 8
e + 4 High concrete operations 9, 10
e + 5 Substage introductory to formal operations 11, 12
e + 6 Low formal operations 13, 14
e + 7 High formal operations 15–adult