With this new book, the authors aim to present the practical applications of these procedures by describing how professionals perform assessment in prac tice. In chapters 2 through 8, assessment practices are described that highlight various aspects of cognition such as tactile working memory or problem sol ving. In chapter 9 a group of psychologists from the Nordic countries describes different cognitive domains on which psychological assessment of individuals with CDB can focus and illustrates these with case-examples.
1.1 Perspectives on cognition and cognitive assessment There are several theoretical foundations or approaches for understanding cognition. Vygotsky emphasises that the development of complex mental ac tivities is most effective through social learning (Vygotsky, 1987), while Piaget describes how children move through stages of development that allow them to think in new, more complex ways (Piaget, 1952, 1954). The transactional model of Sameroff emphasises that learning is a result of people’s interactions with other people (Sameroff, 1975). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory focuses on the quality and context of the child’s environment, the complex interaction within these environments and the complexity that arises as the child’s physical and cognitive structures grow and mature (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The neurobiological approach describes cognitive development as closely dependent on brain areas and circuits (Nichols & Newsome, 1999). Finally, the information processing theory emphasises the role of information processing mechanisms in cognitive development, such as attention control and working memory (Miller, 1956). These different theories all attempt to understand cog nitive development, but from different perspectives. Some of the perspectives mentioned above were clearly present in the first book as shown in the following definition of cognition: “Cognition is a mental process of making sense of/in the world that is observable in motivated action, that is situated and interactive. Cognition is an imbedded dynamic system; culture and social relationships are part of that dynamic system” (Ask Larsen & Damen, 2014, p. 11). As our Cognition Network has expanded, new perspectives such as the neurobiological perspective has been included which provide a more diverse picture of cognition and cognitive development. Different perspectives on assessment are also present in this book. In the first book, we defined cognitive assessment as “(...) based on our access to cogni tion. Assessment of cognition is recognising cognitive ability and evaluating the meaningfulness and the success of the actions of the other. Assessment of cognition always has a purpose in a given context” (Ask Larsen & Damen, 2014, p. 12). In this definition, cognitive assessment is not the work of a specific profession or professional background. As laid out in this book, the recogni tion of cognitive abilities and evaluation of the meaningfulness of the actions 13