Michael Siegal, PhD, DSc (March 30, 1950 – February 20, 2012) was a developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist who was Marie Curie Chair in Psychology at the University of Trieste, Italy, and also a Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, UK.
His empirical research sought to determine how access to language, language acquisition, and participation in conversation influence cognitive processes in development[1][2] and their breakdown in adulthood following brain injury,[3] especially in the areas of numerical, spatial, social, and moral cognition.
[4][5][6] This work was carried out in different cultures[7] and involves monolingual and bilingual children,[8][9] atypically developing children such as deaf children,[10][11] and children and adults with aphasia.
[12] Having completed his D. Phil.
at the University of Oxford, he worked as an academic at the University of Queensland from 1979 to 1997.