A long-awaited book from developmental disorders expert John Morton, Understanding Developmental Disorders: A Causal Modelling Approach makes sense of the many competing theories about what can go wrong with early brain development, causing a child to develop outside the normal range.
- Based on the idea that understanding developmental disorders requires us to talk about biological, cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors, and to talk about causal relationships among these elements.
- Explains what causal modelling is and how to do it.
- Compares different theories about particular developmental disorders using causal modelling.
- Will have a profound impact on research in the fields of psychology, neuroscience and medicine.
Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgements viii
Chapter 1 Introducing Cause 1
Cause and public issues 1
Cause and individual events: ‘Why did Romeo die?’ 6
Some more reasons for not looking at individual cases 9
The need for a framework for thinking in 10
Creating a tool: the problem of notation 14
An example of the limits of language 15
An invitation to consider diagrams as a tool 18
A tool for representing causal relationships 18
Chapter 2 Introducing Cognition 20
One thing I do want you to believe 20
Reductionism 22
Can we rely on behaviour? 24
The IQ example: a note of caution 27
Why cause needs cognition 29
Chapter 3 Representing Causal Relationships: Technical and Formal Considerations 34
Categorizing facts 34
The causal notation 38
Starting a causal model for autism 41
Complications 46
Some easy stuff on cause and correlation 51
Other notations 54
Chapter 4 Autism: How Causal Modelling Started 67
The biological origin of autism 74
The role of cognition in defining autism 81
What is mentalizing? 86
The non-social features of autism: how to diagram ideas on weak central coherence in autism 89
Summary 92
Chapter 5 The What and the How 98
Ground rules of causal modelling 99
Chapter 6 Competing Causal Accounts of Autism 106
Representing the effects of environmental factors 107
Cognitive theories of autism 112
Chapter 7 The Problem of Diagnosis 133
Diagnosis and cause: relying on behaviour 134
The Spanish Inquisition example: the dangers of labelling 135
Problems of diagnostic practice 140
Variability 148
Changes over time: improvement and deterioration 152
The variability of the phenotype 153
On co-morbidity and the question of residual normality 158
To summarize 160
Chapter 8 A Causal Analysis of Dyslexia 161
The dyslexia debate: Is there such a thing as dyslexia? 161
The discrepancy definition of specific reading disability 164
Towards a cognitive definition 166
An X-type causal model of dyslexia 168
Competing theories of dyslexia 176
Non-biological causes 195
Other biological causes of reading failure 199
How do we sort among the options? 200
The relationship between acquired and developmental dyslexia 204
A theoretical update 204
Chapter 9 The Hyperkinetic Confusions 208
Drugs as diagnostic refinement 212
Types of theory 216
The problem of co-morbidity: conduct disorder and ADHD 218
The cognitive level 219
Sonuga-Barke’s dual pathway model 223
Summary 226
Chapter 10 Theories of Conduct Disorder 227
The violence inhibition mechanism (VIM) model 228
The social information processing model for aggressive children 231
The coercive parenting model of Patterson 235
The theory of life-course persistent antisocial behaviour 236
What does the application of the framework tell us about the theories? 244
Chapter 11 Tying in Biology 247
Relations between the cognitive and biological levels 247
Equivalence: brain to cognition 251
Causal influences from cognition to brain 253
Genes and cause: the end of behaviour genetics 255
Endophenotypes 264
Mouse (and other) models for human disorders 266
Chapter 12 To Conclude 270
References 273
Name Index 292
Subject Index 296
About the Author :
John Morton is the former Director of the Medical Research Council’s Cognitive Development Unit. He is now Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London.
Review :
"What causes disorders of development? How can they be meaningfully defined? These questions have resulted in deeply entangled controversies. John Morton has provided a razor-sharp tool that cuts the Gordian knot. This tool uses a simple pictorial notation that leaves aside ambiguous and divisive words. It resolves entrenched but illusory oppositions between cognition and brain and between nature and nurture. It makes the confusing facts about autism, dyslexia, and other disorders fall into a new coherent pattern and invigorates the comparison of different points of view. This book is indispensable for anyone trying to understand cognitive development and its disorders." Uta Frith, Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
"In his compelling book, Understanding Developmental Disorders, John Morton applies a causal modeling approach to understanding the influences that biological, cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors exert on the emergence of developmental disorders. Morton eloquently conveys a way of conceptualizing various theories of developmental disorders. This volume will provide an invaluable tool for students, practitioners, and those in academia. I highly recommend it as a must for all professionals striving to understand the origins and course of developmental disorders." Dante Cicchetti, Ph.D., Director, Mt. Hope Family Center
"Causal modelling of cognition is a new and original tool not only for thinking with precision about cognitive development and the ways in which it can go amiss; I can see this book having a revolutionary impact on developmental psychology. The causal-modelling framework is also valuable for exposing the kind of sloppy thinking about the causes of developmental difficulties that one sees so often in statements by journalists and politicians (the book contains many such examples). Simply and cogently written, this book is of great importance both for scientists in developmental psychology and for public-health professionals concerned with disorders such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia." Prof Max Coltheart, Scientific Director, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Australia
"John Morton's deep and wonderful book should be required reading for any serious student of cognitive development, as well as for any researcher concerned with developmental disabilities. In giving us a tool for thinking about the causal history of developmental disabilities, he offers profound insights into the nature of causality, the relations among different levels of analysis, and the causes of four developmental syndromes, including autism and dyslexia." Susan Carey, Professor, Harvard University
"Morton's lucid and highly readable book offers an excellent tool to clarify the field of developmental disorders as it stands and to point the way to the future." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, August 2005
"Morton writes from first principles but then, as the book progresses, assumes some psychological sophistication. He has a comfortable and conversational...style that has become unusual in scientific writing. It invites reflection, questioning and discussion and I found it well suited to putting across concepts." Tom Berney, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, May 2006
“Morton’s causal modeling approach seems an innovative and insightful advance in examining and understanding the causes and diagnosis of pathologic conditions.” Psychological Record
