BRAIN

AND

COGNITION

20, 51-73 (1992)

The Role of the Frontal Lobes in the Regulation

of Cognitive Development
ROBBIE CASE
Center for Educational

Research at Stanford, School of Education,

Stanford University

Between the ages of 1.5 and 5 years, and again between the ages of 5 and 10
years, a sequence of changes takes place in childrens behavior which indicates a
fundamental reorganization of their attentional, executive, and self-reflexive processes. In the present article, these changes are summarized, and evidence is
adduced to support the claims (1) that these changes are frontally mediated and
(2) that the underlying mechanism that generates them is similar to the one that
generates the changes in EEG coherence during the same time period. The psychological model that has been hypothesized to explain the cycles of cognitive
development (Case, 1992) is then compared to the physiological model that has
been proposed to explain cycles of EEG development (Thatcher, 1992). It is
shown that the two models are complementary, both in the underlying developmental sequence that they postulate and in the recursive dynamic they propose
for producing movement through this sequence. A number of implications and
predictions are derived, which follow from the proposition that the two sets of
changes are different manifestations of a common underlying process. c, IW2
Academic

Press. Inc.

On the basis of the existing anatomical and neurophysiological data,

as well as his own extensive data on brain-injured and normal adults,
Stuss (1992) has concluded that the frontal system is responsible for controlling two of the functions that are most essential for high-level cognitive
activity in humans, namely: (1) executive control of novel responses and
(2) awareness of the self as an actor that has this sort of intellectual
capability. Stuss has also reviewed data which suggest that the frontal
cortex continues to develop, in a hierarchical fashion, for a good 20 years
I am endebted to Adele Diamond, Dan Keating, Anik DeRibaupierre, Juan PascualLeone, Sid Segalowitz, Donald Stuss, and Robert Thatcher for their comments on an earlier
draft of the present article and to the McDonnell Foundation for supporting its preparation.
1 am also endebted to Wilma Strenk for her help in typing the manuscript and to Donald
Hebb for planting the original seed. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Robbie
Case, Center for Educational Research, Stanford School of Education, Stanford University,
Palo Alto, CA 94305.
51
0278-2626192$5.00
CopyrIght
D 1YY2 hy Academnc Pres, Inc.
All rights of reproduction
I any form resew4

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after birth and that both of the foregoing functions continue to evolve
throughout this time period.
On the basis of his work on the development of EEG coherence and
phase, Thatcher (1992; see also Thatcher, in press) has presented a view
of frontal lobe development that complements and extends the view proposed by Stuss. During the period between 18 months and 11 years,
Thatcher has suggested that two cycles or waves of development may
be identified, in which electrical activity in the frontal cortex is increasingly
coordinated with electrical activity in other cortical systems in a dynamic
fashion.
On the basis of these two general categories of data, and others like
them (Matousek & Peterson, 1973; Hudspeth, 1985), both Stuss and
Thatcher have implicitly endorsed the classical metaphor of the frontal
system as an orchestra leader, whose function is to direct the activity
of various other systems. What their work adds are the notions (1) that
this role requires the frontal system to establish some sort of electrophysiological control of these other systems, in the course of ontogenesis,
and (2) that the process by which this occurs is a hierarchical and dynamic
one, which continues throughout the period of physical maturation.
If one were to stop at this sort of characterization, one would be on
theoretical ground that is solid, in the sense that it is supported by the
great bulk of data on normal and frontally impaired cognitive functioning
in both adults and children. The characterization would also be supported
by the great bulk of data on EEG patterning and anatomical change in
the course of human and primate ontogenesis. Finally, the characterization
would be congruent with the classical theoretical view of frontal functioning that was developed in the early 1960s (Luria, 1966; Milner, 1963;
Teuber, 1964), as well as the refinements and reinterpretations of that
view that have been generated since (e.g., Hudspeth & Pribram, 1990;
Stuss & Benson, 1986, Thatcher, Walker, & Guidice, 1987).
While this neo-classical view seems correct in its broad outline, what
I attempt in the present article is to move slightly beyond it, into an
empirical and theoretical region that is more speculative. My motivation
for doing so is that there is a striking similarity between the cycles of
EEG coherence that have been documented by Thatcher and his colleagues and the cycles of cognitive growth that have been documented
by contemporary investigators in the field of intellectual cognitive development (Case, 1985; Case, Kurland, & Goldberg, 1992; Fischer & Ferrar,
1988; Mounoud, 1986). Moreover, the cognitive cycles which have been
studied most intensively appear to involve functions which are the developmental precursors of those that have been studied by Stuss in his
work with frontal patients. By comparing Stusss and Thatchers data with
the data on childrens cognitive development, then, it seems possible that
a more integrated view of the development of the frontal system may be

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53

obtained. It also seems possible that hypotheses may be developed which

transcend any one of these fields of investigation and which may be used
to inform further work of an integrative nature.
With these goals in mind, the present article has been organized in four
sections. In the first, three sets of data are presented which bear on the
development of childrens executive and self-reflexive capabilities in middle childhood; these data are then compared to the EEG data presented
by Thatcher and shown to be similar in a number of important respects.
In the second section, a similar set of data are oresented for the preschool
period and once again shown to be similar to the EEG data presented
by Thatcher. In the third section, the reasons for these similarities are
explored, and a model is proposed that integrates the two different sorts
of data. Finally, in the fourth section, several predictions are adduced
from the model, for further exploration.
1. COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT

DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

1. I Changes in A ttentional Capacity

The first function that Stuss attributes to the frontal lobes is the executive control of novel behavior. As even a casual analysis will reveal,
one of the most distinctive characteristics of effective novel behavior is
that it can only be generated once the available information has been
scrutinized in the active fashion: certain items of information must be
actively attended to, and others must be actively ignored, if subjects are
to adapt their existing behavioral repertoire to the new situations that
they encounter. It is because this sort of adaptation is necessary that,
from the founding of cognitive psychology, the twin attentional functions
of activation and inhibition have been regarded as essential to the exercise
of the executive function (e.g., Baldwin, 1984; James, 1950).
As might be expected, these two functions have also remained of interest
to contemporary theorists (Kahneman, 1973; Pascual-Leone, 1988; Stuss
& Benson, 1986). In the developmental literature, a hypothesis that has
been scrutinized with particular care is that children show a maturationally
based increase in attentional capacity from 1 to 4 units during the period
from 4 to 10 years of age and that this increase acts both to energize and
to constrain the novel behavior they exhibit (Pascual-Leone, 1970). On
a number of measures that were devised to test this hypothesis, what
emerged was a strong linear increase from 1 to 3 units for the age range
from 4 to 7 years, a decelleration which began at about the age of 8 years
and an asymptote which began at about the age of 10 or 11 years (Case,
1972; Case, Kurland & Goldberg, 1982). Two measures which showed
this trend quite reliably are the Counting Span, and the Spatial Span tests.
On the Counting Span test, subjects are asked to count a set of blue
dots embedded in a field of yellow dots, touching each blue dot and

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enumerating it as they do so. They must then remember the total number
of blue dots while they count the blue dots on a series of IZ - 1 further
cards. Finally, they must recall each of the II totals they have computed
and say them back to the experimenter in order. On the first block of
trials, 12 is set at 1 (i.e., no subsequent card is presented). On each
subsequent block, n is incremented by 1 unit. Eventually the point is
reached where the subject can no longer remember all the totals for any
trial: numbers from previous trials or from interpolated counting acts
intrude, and the interference becomes too great for the subject to overcome. The number of card-totals that the subject can remember on the
majority of trials within a block is then noted and referred to as his or
her working memory for numbers.
On the Spatial Span test subjects are asked to inspect a 4 x 4 matrix
and note which cell has been shaded. They are then shown a filler pattern,
followed by a second, blank 4 x 4 matrix. When the second matrix
appears, subjects must point to the cell which corresponds to the one that
was shaded on the first matrix. Several blocks of trials are then presented,
in which the number of cells shaded (n) is increased by 1 unit for each
block. Again, a point is eventually reached where the subject can no
longer remember all the positions successfully on the majority of trials
within a block, due to the interference from prior and/or interpolated
activity. The number of cells whose position can be recalled is referred
to as the subjects working memory for grid positions (Crammond, 1992).
The specific operations that these two working memory tests require
are of course quite different. What is common is that-within each testsubjects must (1) execute a series of highly similar operations, (2) store
the products of these operations under conditions of strong interference,
and (3) output these products in sequence. In Stuss and Bensons (1986)
framework, as in Pascual-Leones (1970, 1988), what this means is that
subjects must exercise both of the functions that are normally included
under the rubric of executively mediated attention, namely (1) sustained
activation of one set of units and (2) inhibition of a potentially competing
set of units.
The sort of data that result when these tests are administered are
illustrated in Table 1. Elsewhere, I have interpreted such results as providing strong support for Pascual-Leones theory. What is important in
the present context, however, is their fit to Thatchers second cycle of
EEG coherence. Although the two different sorts of data are hard to
place on a common scale, a global comparison of their timing and shape
is possible, by computing annual increments in span and comparing them
with data on rate of EEG change. Such a comparison is presented in Fig.
1. The span data are from a meta-analysis of 12 developmental studies,
each of which sampled cross-sectionally across a 6- to &year age range
and assessedat least 80 children on one or both of the measures described

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55

DEVELOPMENT

TABLE 1
MEANS AND (STANDARD DEVIATIONS) OF Two DIFFERENT ATTENTIONAL SPAN MEASURES
SCORESFOR AGE GROUPS

Age group
mean (years)
--__4.61 (0.27)
6.62 (0.13)
8.57 (0.17)
10.56 (0.20)
15.10 (Sl)

___-~____Counting
__-.
1.07 (0.15)
2.08 (0.64)
3.13 (0.44)
3.41 (0.47)
3.83 (64)
-.

~__

Span measure
.~

..~.

~-.-.

4 x 4 Matrix
_---.~
0.96 (0.39)
1.95 (0.62)
2.88 (0.79)
359 (1.08)
3.79 (.4X)

Data from Crammond (1992).

Data from Menna (1989).

45

5.5

61
T 75
Age I Years

85

9.5

FIG. 1. (A) Rate of growth of EEG coherence between frontal and posterior lobes
during middle childhood (FI-PJ). (Source: Thatcher, 19Y2). (B) Rate of growth of working
memory (counting span and spatial span) during the same age range.

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CASE

above. The EEG data are taken from Thatchers work, which is reported
in this volume.
As will no doubt be apparent, there is an approximate correspondence
in the shape and position of the two curves, which suggests that the two
sets of data may be indexing a common underlying set of changes. Further
evidence which bears on this interpretation comes from a study on frontal
development by Segalowitz, Wagner, and Menna (1992). As part of this
study, electrodes were placed on the central vertex (Cz) and frontal pole
(Fpz), and contingent negative variation (CNV) was measured. The two
measures of attentional capacity that were described above were also
administered and shown to correlate significantly with frontal CNV (r =
.40 and .44, for the Counting and Spatial Spans, respectively). Combining
these data with those illustrated in Fig. 1, it seems reasonable to suggest
that the growth of attentional span depends in some fashion on the functioning of the frontal lobes and/or changes in the extent to which frontal
activity is coordinated with activity in other cortical systems.
1.2 Changes in the Power and Flexibility of the Executive Function
Although attentional activation and inhibition constitute two important
components of childrens executive functioning, they are of course not all
there is to this functioning. One of the best known tasks that has been
used for studying childrens executive functioning more directly is Inhelder
and Piagets (1958) Balance Beam task. This is a task in which children
are shown a balance beam, allowed to play with it, and then asked to
make predictions concerning which side will go down on a series of trials
of increasing complexity. After each trial feedback is presented, so that
children can see whether they are correct. Under these conditions, 4year-olds tend to focus exclusively on the global perceptual appearance
of the objects on each side in making their predictions and to perseverate
on this variable, even in the face of negative feedback. Thus, they succeed
on trials where a large stack of objects is on one side and this side happens
to go down, but fail on all others (Case, 1985, p. 96.; Liu, 1981; Marini,
1992). Six-year-olds take account of the number of objects on each side
as well, but perseverate on this dimension when feedback indicates that
it is insufficient (Siegler, 1976; Furman, 1981). Finally, S-year-olds take
account of the additional dimension that is of relevance, namely distance
from the fulcrum (Siegler, 1976).
There is a clear relationship between childrens progression through
this sequence and the development of their working memory on the measures described in the previous section. Children whose working memory
development is delayed or accelerated show a corresponding acceleration
For further evidence on this point, see Howard
Hamstra, Benson, Khan and England (1990).

and Pollich

(1985); Pascual-Leone,

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57

or delay in their balance beam performance. Moreover, any direct manipulation of attentional capacity produces a corresponding effect on level
of functioning on the balance task (Case, 1985, ch. 16).
Although the specifics are quite different, similar findings have been
obtained on a version of the Raven Matrices for which training is provided
(Wagner, 1981; Case, 1985, p. 201). Four-year-olds can only succeed on
matrices where the correct answer can be arrived at by a strategy of
perceptual pattern recognition. Six-year-olds can focus their attention on
one particular dimension, (e.g., shape) and complete patterns of the form:
square A goes with triangle B, square B goes with -?
Eight-year-olds
can focus on a second dimension and thus succeed on a more standard
sort of matrix item such as small square A goes with big square A; small
triangle B goes with ---?
Finally, progression through this sequence is
strongly related to the development of working memory, as assessedby
the measures described above.
One more set of results is worth mentioning. On the standard test of
concept acquisition (Gholson & Beilin, 1979; Stevenson, 1968), children
are presented with a sequence of card pairs, for each of which they must
guess which of the two cards is correct. The cards vary in their size,
shape, and color, and for any block of trials one particular dimension
and value (e.g., shape-triangle) is established as the correct concept
by the experimenter and is rewarded. What happens under these conditions is that 4-year-olds tend to focus on the global perceptual properties
of the first object that is classified as correct (e.g., a large triangle). They
then use these properties as a guide for guessing which stimulus will be
correct on subsequent trials, and if they are incorrect they either perseverate on these characteristics or adopt some sort of positional guessing
strategy (e.g., the one on the left is always correct).
By contrast, 6-year-olds begin to use their ability to classify along various
dimensions to aid them in their hypothesis about which card is correct.
Thus, they now focus consistently on the rewarded dimensions (e.g.,
shape) from the outset and on the particular value along this dimension
(e.g., triangle). If they happen to be incorrect in their first hypothesis (or
if the underlying rule is changed), they reverse the value of the dimension
and start picking the square instead of the triangle. This is of course fine
if the experimenter happens to pick this as correct. If he does not,
however, it is not a good strategy, and in fact 6-year-olds then do very
poorly, as they tend to perseverate on the first dimension.
Finally, by the age of 8, childen show the ability to shift to a totally
different dimension (e.g., color) if the first dimension they select yields
an inconsistent pattern or if the rule is changed. In the literature on
childrens concept acquisition, this latter strategy is referred to as a nonreversal shift (Stevenson, 1968)
A detailed model of the executive control structures that are necessary

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to respond successfully to each of the above three tasks in a flexible

fashion has been presented elsewhere (Case, 1985, chap 9). What is important in the present context is (1) all the foregoing tasks require subjects
to orchestrate their existing perceptual capabilities, in the presence of
feedback, in order to attain a novel goal and (2) the general pattern of
development that is obtained in each case is one that parallels the development of childrens working memory. One piece of clinical data is
also relevant. This is that the foregoing tasks all utilize materials and task
formats which bear a strong resemblance to those used on the Wisconsin
Card Sort Test, which is one of the standard clinical markers for frontal
lobe dysfunction. Not only are the requirements of the tasks similar to
those of the Wisconsin Card Sort, but the age range in which the most
rapid improvement is observed on these tasks is similar as well (Chelune
& Baer, 1986). There is also a similarity in the form of childrens errors.
For example: one of the standard problems for frontal patients on the
Wisconsin Card Sort is a dissociation between what they state they will
do and what they actually do. In my experience, this is exactly what occurs
with young children: Although they may state that they will change the
basis of their response, in fact they have great difficulty doing so and
often continue to select the same stimulus dimension on later trials as on
early ones.
In summary: childrens problems on all the foregoing tests are dual
ones, which involve paying attention to one or more new dimensions on
the one hand and inhibiting their response to a previously rewarded dimension on the other. These problems are empirically associated with
low functioning on the tests of working memory, which were described
in the previous section, and which-in addition to sharing these same
requirements-are known to correlate with frontal CNV. The problems
children exhibit on these tasks when they fail also bear a pronounced
resemblance to the difficulties exhibited on the standard marker for frontal
lobe functioning by subjects who are either developmentally immature or
frontally impaired. Putting these facts together, it seems reasonable to
suggest that the wave-like cycle of growth which is observed on these
behavioral tasks is dependent on the same underlying set of frontally
mediated changes as those which produce the EEG coherence waves that
Thatcher has documented.
1.3 Changes in Self-Awareness and Emotional

Regulation

The level three function that Stuss ascribes to the frontal lobes is
that of metacognition or self-regulation. Interestingly, children have
also been found to show substantial improvements on these functions
during theis same age range (Biemiller & Meichenbaum, 1989). One way
in which these changes are reflected is in childrens increased awareness
of their own mental activity when they are shown a videotape of them-

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59

selves in their preschool classrooms. Under these conditions, 4-year-olds

can identify themselves (often because they recognize their own clothing!).
However, they do not show either the capability or the inclination to
suggest what was going on in their minds at the time the videotape was
made. By contrast, 6- and S-year olds are capable of providing rich accounts of what they were thinking or planning during the videotaped
session, and these accounts correspond quite well to the sorts of spontaneous verbal comments that they make in other, similar situations
(Biemiller & Meichenbaum, 1989; Griffin, 1986).
A parallel set of data have been gathered for emotional awareness and
regulation. Four-year-olds show very little understanding of emotions that
are related to self-evaluation (such as pride or embarrassment), whereas
6- and 8-year-olds show increasing sophistication in this regard (Griffin,
1989, 1992). In addition, 4-year-olds show relatively little ability to delay
gratification (Meichenbaum & Goodman, 1971) or to inhibit emotional
expressions of sadness or anger in social situations in which these are
deemed inappropriate by their culture. By contrast, 8-year-olds are once
again quite sophisticated in this regard (Izard & Malaetesta, 1984). This
is also the same age range as the one in which, in studies that have been
conducted in the sociohistoric tradition (Diaz, Neal, & Williams 1991),
internal speech is believed to assume control over childrens self-regulation. Finally, as Eslinger, Damasio, Dasio, & Grattan have shown
(1989; see also Grattan & Eslinger, 1992), developmental lesions in the
frontal lobes which are sustained during the 6- to g-year-old period produce decrements in the regulatory function that normally emerges during
this age range, as well as in those that normally emerge at subsequent
points in development.
Although the above set of data does not come exclusively or even
primarily from our own research group, we have attempted to model them
using the same approach as we have employed for our models of novel
problem solving and to examine their relationship to the data already
mentioned (Case, 1991). Our conclusion is that they show the same general
pattern of growth during the elementary school years and are dependent
on the same underlying processes. Although the evidence is not quite as
strong for self-reflection as it is for attention and executive functioning,
it seems reasonable to suggest that the cycle of behavioral growth and
the cycle of EEG growth are dependent on a similar set of underlying
changes, which are frontally mediated.
2. COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT

DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD

As developmental psychologists are all too aware, the age norms that
one obtains on most cognitive-developmental measures can be radically
altered, either by simplification of the measures or by the addition of
some extra complexity. As it happens, a number of measures have been

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designed which tap the same general functions as those which were described in the previous section, but which are less complex and can therefore be assumed to require a lower level of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972).
2.1 Changes in Attentional Capacity
The steps that are required in order to create a simple measure of
working memory are: First, subjects must be asked to execute a simpler
operation, whose product would normally be a prerequisite for executing
one of the more complex operations that are tapped by measures such
as the Counting or Spatial Spans. Next, subjects must be asked to execute
a series of highly similar operations and recall the entire string of results
that they generated when they did so. In fact, such measures have been
created for both numerical and spatial operations. For example, on one
such measure subjects were asked to access a series of number names
(which of course is a prerequisite for counting). On another, they were
asked to place a series of objects in some particular spatial orientation
to the background on which they were situated (which is a prerequisite
for indicating the spot where a dot is to be found in a spatial grid). Both
measures were converted to a standard working memory format: i.e., a
format in which several operations were executed in a row, and their
products had to be recollected.
The sorts of data that were obtained under these conditions are presented in Fig. 2. In the same figure the EEG data obtained for this age
range by Thatcher (in press) and by Matousek and Peterson (1973) are
presented. As may be seen, the pattern is once again quite similar across
all three sets of data.
Lest these parallels be dismissed as coincidental, it is once again important to mention that data exist which tie performance on simple preschool memory measures such as these more directly to frontal lobe activity. In studies using single cell recording in monkeys, Goldman-Rakic
(1989a,b) has demonstrated that the frontal system is essential for performing the working memory function on a delayed match to sample task.
In a related series of studies, Diamond and her colleagues (1991) have
shown that short-term memory measures that are mastered by preschoolers also have a strong frontal implication. Once again, then, it seems
reasonable to suggest that the behavioral data and the EEG data show
the same general developmental pattern because they are assessing a
common underlying set of frontally mediated changes.
2.2 Changes in the Power and Flexibility of Executive Functioning
Although the tasks and data are too complex to present in detail, it is
worthwhile to mention that other tests have been created which require

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61

A: EEG: Relative Power [F - T]

5

B: EEG: Coherence [F2 - T6]

C: STM

Age in Years
2. (A) Rate of growth of EEG coherence between frontal and temporal lobes
during early childhood (FZ-T,). (Source: Thatcher, 1992). (B) Rate of growth of relative
EEG power (F-T). [Source: Matousek & Peterson (1973) as reported by Hudspeth &
Pribram (1985)]. (C) Rate of growth of working memory for consonants. [Primary source:
Bleiker (1991). Secondary sources (for 1st data point (Liu, 1991) for last data point, Dempster
(1978))1.
FIG.

preschool children to devote their attentional resources to the solution of

novel problems. For example, on one such battery, children are presented
with a simpler set of balance scale items than those described in the
previous section (Case, 1985, chap. 6; Marini & Case, 1989). Once again,
the growth curves for these other tasks correspond quite well to Thatchers
waves of coherence. There is a rapid improvement from 1r/2 to 2% years
of age and a more gradual continued improvement from ages 2% to 5.
The rate of this improvement is also strongly correlated with the rate of
improvement in subjects short-term memory (Liu, 1981; Case, 1985, p.
315).

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2.3 Changes in Self-Control

CASE

and Awareness

A similar pattern may also be found on tests which assesschildrens

self-awareness and self-regulation during this age range. At about the age
of 20 months, children begin to pass the rouge test (Lewis, 1979). This
is a test in which a bit of rouge is daubed on their forehead, and they
are confronted with the result in a mirror. Prior to the age of about 20
months, children either do not notice the daub of rouge or point to it in
the mirror only. By the age of about 20 months, they reach to their own
forehead to explore the rouge directly, thus demonstrating that they understand (1) that the image that the mirror shows is only a representation
and (2) that what the image represents is their own person. Shortly after
this time, children also acquire personal pronouns for referring to themselves and for differentiating themselves from others. Finally, during the
period from about 3 to 4 years of age, children begin to show clear signs
of referring to themselves with age- and gender-appropriate category labels, and of controlling their negative emotions, not because the emotions are socially inappropriate but simply because they dislike the experience (Knopp, 1982).
As Diaz, Neal, and Williams (1991) have pointed out, the foregoing
developments are more aptly characterized as self-control than as selfregulation, Nevertheless, the changes represent an important precursor
of self regulation, and one that is hierarchically related to it.
2.4 Summary

Each one of the frontal functions that Stuss has isolated on the basis
of his work with adult frontal patients has a counterpart in measures that
have been administered to young children. For each one of these functions,
too, there is evidence of recursive, hierarchical growth, as children move
to higher levels of cognitive processing. Finally, for each of these tasks
there is some form of evidence+ither direct or indirect-that the frontal
lobes are implicated in this growth in some manner. This being the case,
it seems reasonable to suggest that the correspondence between the cycles
of cognitive development and the cycles of EEG coherence is not coincidental. Rather, it seems likely that the two sets of curves are dependent
on a common underlying process, which is frontally mediated.
3. TOWARD AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF NEUROLOGICAL
PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

AND

Given the pattern of data that was described in the foregoing sections,
the question that naturally emerges concerns the underlying process which
generates these patterns and why it generates a wave-like rather than a
linear change. One way to address this question is to examine, independently, the explanations that have been proposed to account for the

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cycles of cognitive and EEG growthbe found between them.

DEVELOPMENT

63

then to see if any relationship can

3.1 Explanations for Cycles of Cognitive Growth

The most common explanation that has been advanced for the cycles
of growth in cognitive development is illustrated in Fig. 3. This is a visual
representation proposed by Fischer (1980) for a form of developmental
reorganization that a number of authors have documented (Case, 1978,
1985, 1991; Fischer, 1980; Fischer & Ferrar, 1988; Halford, 1982; Mounoud, 1986)?
What the figure is meant to convey is this: (1) During the period from
birth to adulthood, four major stages may be identified in childrens
intellectual development, each of which involves a move to a higher level
of processing. (2) Transition to each new level of processing takes place
as a result of the differentiation, consolidation, and coordination of qualitatively different units from the previous stage (these units are symbolized
in the figure by the letters A and B). (3) As children actually enter any
new level the following sequence of further changes take place: (i) First,
two qualitatively different units are integrated and used to construct some
new form of mental unit. (ii) Next, the focus of childrens attention
expands, and two or more (potentially conflicting) units of this new sort
are differentiated. (iii) Next, as working memory expands further, there
is a further expansion in the attentional field, with the result that two or
more of the new units can be synthesized into a coherent system (thus
potentially overcoming any conflict that may have been present). (iv)
Finally, as children become capable of moving from one unit to another
in the new system and back in a flexible and principled (reversible)
fashion, an overall consolidation of the system takes place. This consolidation prepares the system to function as one of the two fundamental
units from which the higher order structures of the next stage will be
constructed.
3.2 Comparison of Cycles of Cognitive Growth with Cycles of EEG
Growth
Figure 4 compares the cognitive changes that take place during the
period from 1.5 to 11 years with the EEG changes that have been documented by Thatcher in the present issue of this journal (for 1.5 to 7
years) and elsewhere (for the period from 7 to 11 years). As may be
seen, two formally identical cycles are apparent; in each of which there
is a progression from left to bilateral to right hemispheric change. Moreover, the match between the cycles of neurological and cognitive devel* The particulars of the figure (including
and derive from my own work.

the age ranges), differ somewhat from Fischers

64

ROBBIE CASE

REGULATlON

OF COGNITIVE

Right
Hemisphere

65

DEVELOPMENT

:a
A

:: :

9-11

years

7-9
years

STAGE II

5- 6
years

that are being formed among various

FIG. 4. Visual representation
of connections
cortical locations, as judged by data on EEG coherence. [Sources: Thatcher. (in press:
1992)j

opment is quite a close one. For each stage or substage in the developmental cycle, there is a corresponding stage or substage in the EEG cycle.
Putting the two sets of changes together, the following tentative characterization may be suggested.
Substage 1: Operational coordination. At the beginning of each major
stage, what the EEG data suggest is that new short-distance connections
are formed between previously differentiated cortical units controlled by
the frontal lobes and units in the left temporal, occipital, and parietal
lobes (Thatcher, 1991, 1992). The psychological change is the creation
of a new psychological function and/or the creation of a new psychological
unit.
Recall that Thatchers use of the term connection is a general one and is meant to
include axonal sprouting, synaptogenesis. expansion of existing synaptic terminals, presynaptic changes in the amount of neurotransmitter
excreted, and changes in postsynaptic
response to neurotransmitter.
Another possible mechanism which Thatcher mentions (but
does not favor) is myelinization.
In this connection. it is worthwhile to note that Halford (in press) has suggested that

66

ROBBIE

CASE

As the reader will no doubt be aware, the primary new function that
emerges during the period from 1.5 to 2 years is the symbolic one, i.e.,
the use of linguistic, gestural, and image-generating capabilities that are
already present in rudimentary form, in a voluntary, referential fashion.
What may be less well known is that, during the period from 5 to 7 years,
a new function emerges as well. In classical Piagetian terms, this function
would be termed the logic of functions. One example of this sort of
logic has already been mentioned: the one-way, quantitative logic, whose
origin lies in the integration of preschoolers causal-analytic and numerical
capabilities (Case, 1985). Another example is, in effect, a form of psychologic which results from the integration of preschoolers rudimentary
theory of mind with their narrative capability: For the first time, events
in a socially scripted sequence of behavior are given motivational or planbased explanations as well as action-based ones (Goldberg, 1992; Bruchowsky, 1992; McKeough, 1982; Griffin, 1992).
Substage 2:Bifocal coordination. During the second substage, the EEG
changes that one begins to see appear to reflect the gradual formation
and rotation of longer distance connections between the left frontal
lobe and the other lobes and the formation of parallel long-distance connections in the right hemisphere (Thatcher, 1992). The psychological
changes that take place include the creation of more complex executive
structures for controlling the new functions that emerged during the previous substage and the emergence of voluntary shifts in focus between
different exemplars of the new units that have been created (hence the
term bifocal). In early childhood, the shifts in focus between 2.5 and
3.5 years of age tend to involve a move from one to two semantic relations
or one spatial relation and one verbal relation (Case, 1985). In middle
childhood, the shifts tend to involve movement between two psychological
or logical dimensions, rather than exclusive focusing on one (recall that
this sort of refocusing is required by tests such as the Wisconsin Card
Sort).
Substage 3: Elaborated bifocal coordination. The cortical changes that
take place during the third substage include the termination of left frontal
changes and the formation of shorter distance connections in the right
hemisphere. Thatcher (1992) has interpreted these new developments as
indicating a differentiation and consolidation of functions that have already
been integrated. In fact, this appears to be a good cognitive characterization as well. What happens during this substage, at least from a cognitive
point of view, is that the flexibility that emerged at the previous substage
is actively drawn upon in order to create well-consolidated and highly
the creation of a new psychological function can be modeled in a PDP framework by a
function that maps one existing network onto another. The present analysis seems consistent
with this suggestion.

REGULATION

OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT

67

differentiated units at the existing level of processing. Once assembled

and consolidated, these new units then set the stage for the next wave
of growth, as new short-distance connections are once again formed to
the left hemisphere and a new level of processsing is entered.
Although space does not permit its consideration here, there is also
considerable evidence that entry into any new level has new affective
requirements as well and that the integration that is involved involves not
only higher level control over posterior, cognitive structures, but also
higher level control of emotional structures, which are very probably
subserved by the limbic system (Case, Hayward, Lewis, & Hurst, 1987).
Examples of this sort of regulation are provided by Davidson (1992) and
Fox (1992).
3.4 In Search of a Metaphor Which Includes Structural and Functional
Components

As anyone who is familiar with computer programming is aware, the

sort of cyclic recursion that the foregoing description implies could be
effected by a change in childrens intellectual software, without the
introduction of any changes in hardware whatever. All one would need
would be a system which was capable of taking entire programs at one
level, once they were formed, and recoding them as single units, then
utilizing these units as core elements in higher order programs.
What the neurological data and model suggest, however, and what is
further supported by data on the cognitive functioning of other species,
is that this is unlikely to be the full story. Rather, a better analogy might
be the sort of change that often takes place in a growing industrial organization. As an industrial operation reaches a critical size and complexity
(as happens in the final phase of any cycle), it is often the case that-in
order to continue to grow and expand-its functions must be differentiated, and a vice president must be appointed to take charge of each.
A new president can then be sought, whose primary role is to deal with
the demands of coordinating the activities of each division, rather than
with the daily demands of running either.
As this switch takes place in a business organization, the enterprise
enters a new stage in its industrial life, and some further expansion in
the physical units that house the enterprise must often take place as well.
New quarters (undoubtedly more modern!) may also have to be found
to house the new chief executive, and the new chief executive may also
find that she needs to increase her office staff and to install a new communication system to link her office with those of her new vice presidents.
The foregoing set of changes may well constitute an appropriate metaphor to describe the changes that have taken place in the course of
human evolution and that are in some sense recapitulated in a dynamic,
self-organizing fashion (and with vital experimential input) in the course

68

ROBBIE

CASE

of human ontogenesis. One need simply add the suggestions (1) that the
space in which the increased executive function is located is the frontal
lobes and (2) that every time an expansion takes place in this executive
function, such that higher level units can be monitored and directed, it
is also necessary to effect a more elaborated system of communication
between the seat of the executive function (i.e., the frontal lobes) and
the seat of the other, more specialized functions that the organism has
developed in its day-to-day interaction with its environment.
The one question that this metaphor leaves unanswered is why the
waves of frontal connection should move from left to right, as well as
from short to longer distances. Here again, the psychological model may
offer a possible explanation. Let us suppose that the requirements for the
instrumental sequencing of a new A-B unit are different from those of
differentiating and expanding the number of such units that can be considered and assembling them into a coherent system. With this idea in
hand, we can make two further suggestions. The first is that the two
cerebral hemispheres may be differentially specialized for these two different developmental functions, with the right hemisphere perhaps playing
a stronger role in envisioning the functioning of an overall system and
differentiating it from the functioning of other systems (Pascual-Leone,
personal communication; Thatcher, 1992; Young, 1990). The second is
that, since there is a functional dependence of one sort of change on the
other, it might be more efficient to have the two functions operate in a
recursive, two-stroke, fashion, rather than completely in parallel. Although I know of no direct evidence that this is the case, this sort of
arrangement would certainly give development a dynamic quality, as the
two sorts of changes could play off against and energize each other. And
there is increasing evidence that development does have this dynamic
property (Lautry, 1991; Thelan & Ulrich, 1991).
4. IMPLICATIONS

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Although a number of implications of the foregoing developmental

model and metaphor could be adduced, three will be considered before
concluding.
The first concerns the possibility of cycles of development at other age
levels. If the sequence of neurological changes illustrated in Fig. 4 is in
fact what underpins the sequence of psychological developments illustrated
in Fig. 3, then it follows that additional cycles of frontal EEG growth
should be identifiable during each of the age ranges for which additional
psychological cycles have been identified: namely, between the ages of 4
and 18 months, on the one hand, and between the ages of 11 and 16-18
years on the other.5 Given that the overall progression of these four cycles
For evidence with regard to the latter of these two periods, see Thatcher

(in press).

REGULATION

OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT

69

approximates a normal growth function, it is also quite possible that a

further cycle could be identified in the months prior to and immediately
preceding birth, on the one hand, and during the years of full maturity
on the other.
A second implication is that, if dynamic systems models are necessary
to capture the nature of the cortical changes that take place during the
preschool and elementary school period (as Thatcher has suggested), it
is very probably the case that these sorts of models will be necessary to
describe the cognitive changes that take place during these time periods
as well. This suggestion is of course congruent with much of Piagets later
work (Piaget & Garcia, 1983) as well as with recent work in general
systems theory (Van Geert, 1991) and such specific content areas as motor
development (Thelan & Ulrich, 1991). Its extension to the field of attentional, executive, and reflexive development thus seems likely to be promising.
A final implication, and the most speculative one, concerns the consequences of asymmetrical frontal lobe injury. If an injury occurs early
in development and the damage is to the left frontal lobes, then according
to the psychological model, the injury should block subsequent developments that normally occur at the end of the cycle. On the other hand,
the reverse would not necessarily follow. Since movement to a new level
of development only depends on being able to coordinate two units from
the previous level, it could conceivably occur even if the units that were
being coordinated were not fully elaborated and differentiated. Thus, right
frontal lobe injury might not necessarily block further development of a
normal nature in the left frontal lobes. Of course, this argument is predicated on two admittedly controversial assumptions, namely (1) that certain psychological functions are differentially localized in the left vs. the
right hemispheres, and (2) that these functions might be differentially
involved at the beginning and end of the sort of growth cycle that has
been postulated by cognitive theorists. Still, as a direction for future
research, the possibility seems an intriguing one.
CONCLUSIONS

The present article was originally solicited as a commentary on the

papers that were presented by Stuss and Thatcher in the symposium on
which the present issue of this journal has been based. As the reader is
by now aware, I have strayed rather far from the data that Thatcher and
Stuss have presented in my effort to connect them in a sensible fashion.
Ages for these cycles have been suggested by H. White (personal communication).
by
fitting a mathematical curve to the existing stages and substages and extraplolating
it. Data
on adult cycles are also currently being analyzed by Thatcher (See Thatcher, in press. for
a preliminary description).

ROBBIE CASE

70

Moreover, the account I have offered has been one that deals with the
organization and flow of information, which is of course only one of many
neurological functions. Still, the reason I have ventured this sort of description will hopefully also be apparent. It seems to me that the work
with adult frontal patients and the work on childhood EEG patterns are
part of the same general picture, but that we will not be able to grasp
the full dimensions of this picture until we look at the data on cognitive
development as well and attempt to build a model which somehow encompasses all three. What I have tried to do in the present paper is to
indicate the general sort of data that we will have to look at, and one
possible manner in which these data might be organized, if we are to
construct a model of frontal growth that has this sort of integrated nature.
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