Lev Semenovich Vygotsky developed a fundamental theory of the formation and development of higher, specifically human mental functions in a child. Vygotsky’s main idea is about the social mediation of human mental activity. The instrument of this mediation is, according to Vygotsky, a sign (word).
His concept is called “cultural-historical” because, according to this concept, the child’s consciousness, the specific features of his higher mental functions (voluntary memory, voluntary attention) are formed in the child in communication with adults, in which the child assimilates systems of cultural signs developed in the process of socio-historical development. These signs mediate his “lower” (involuntary) mental functions and thereby lead to the creation of completely new formations in the child’s mind.
The main provisions of Vygotsky’s theory on the development of higher mental functions (HMF)
lines of development in human development :
- The natural developmental line is the physical, natural development of a child from the moment of birth.
- Cultural (historical) line of development - arises with the emergence of communication with the outside world.
In the conditions of ontogenetic development, both of these lines - biological and cultural - are in complex interaction, merged, and actually form a single, albeit complex process.
Classification of mental functions
- Lower (elementary) mental functions (LPF) are natural: sensations, perception, children's thinking, involuntary memory.
- Higher mental functions (HMF) are complex, intravitally developing mental processes, social in origin. The distinctive features of HMF are their indirect nature and arbitrariness. These include abstract thinking, speech, voluntary memory, voluntary attention, and imagination.
The child’s higher mental functions arise initially as a form of collective behavior, as a form of cooperation with other people, and only subsequently, through internalization, do they become individual functions themselves, or, as L.S. Vygotsky wrote: “Every function in the cultural development of a child appears on the scene twice, on two levels, first social, then psychological, first between people, as an interpsychic category, then within the child as an intrapsychic category.” The process of formation of the highest mental function is extended over a decade, originating in verbal communication and ending in full-fledged symbolic activity.
Vygotsky on the patterns of formation of the HMF.
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Higher mental functions are complex mental processes that are formed during life, social in origin, mediated in psychological structure and arbitrary in the way of their implementation
He considered truly human HMFs to be a product of cultural and historical development. The development of man (unlike animals) occurs thanks to his mastery of various means - tools that transform nature, and signs that rebuild his psyche. A child can master signs (mainly words, numbers) and, therefore, the experience of previous generations only through the learning process. Therefore, the development of the psyche cannot be considered outside the social environment in which sign means are assimilated, and cannot be understood outside of education.
HMFs are first formed in joint activities, cooperation, communication with other people and gradually move to the internal plane, becoming internal mental processes of the child. As Vygotsky writes, “every function in a person’s cultural development appears on the scene twice: first in the social development of the child as interpsychic (acquired), and then on the internal plane as intrapsychic (one’s own).”
First, the adult uses a word to influence the child, encouraging him to do something. Then the child adopts the method of communication and begins to influence the adult with words. And finally, the child begins to influence himself with words.
In this way, HMF are absorbed and not obtained genetically. A child’s speech, for example, is initially only a means of communication with others, and only after going through a long path of development does it become a means of thinking, inner speech, speech for oneself.
The most important characteristic of HMF is their mediation by various “psychological tools” - sign systems, which are the product of the long socio-historical development of mankind. Among the “psychological tools,” speech plays the leading role. The main characteristics of the HPF - mediation, awareness, arbitrariness - are systemic qualities that characterize the HPF. f. as "psychological systems". VMFs as systems have great plasticity and interchangeability of their components. Unchangeable (invariant) in them are the initial task (the conscious goal of the activity) and the final result; the means by which this task is realized are very variable and different at different stages of ontogenesis and with different methods and paths of formation. Vygotsky identified two levels of mental phenomena (“natural” and “cultural” mental processes, believing that the first is determined primarily by the action of genetic factor, and the second is formed entirely under the influence of social influences. Social influences determine the methods of formation of HMFs. and thereby their psychological structure. HMFs are the most universal way of their formation. HMFs are complex systemic formations, qualitatively different from other mental phenomena. They represent are “psychological systems” that are created by superstructure of new formations over old ones, with the preservation of old formations in the form of subordinate layers within the new whole.
Patterns of formation of HMF: 1) initially they exist as a form of interaction between people (i.e., as an interpsychological process) and only later - as a completely internal (intrapsychological) process. The transformation of external means of performing a function into internal psychological ones is called interiorization. 2) characterizing the logic of development of HMFs - their gradual “winding down”, automation. At the first stages of the formation of V. p. f. represent an expanded form of objective activity, which is based on relatively elementary sensory and motor processes; then these actions and processes are curtailed, acquiring the character of automated mental actions. At the same time, the psychological structure of the HMF function changes.
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The role of the environment in child development
Vygotsky was the first to move from a statement about the importance of the environment for development to identifying a specific mechanism of environmental influence, which actually changes the child’s psyche, leading to the emergence of higher mental functions specific to a person. Vygotsky considered such a mechanism to be the internalization of signs – artificially created man-made incentives and means designed to control one’s own and others’ behavior. HPFs arose with the help of a sign.
Signs are mental tools that, unlike tools of labor, change not the physical world, but the consciousness of the subject operating them. A sign is any conventional symbol that has a specific meaning. The universal sign is the word. The mechanism of change in the child’s psyche, which leads to the emergence of higher mental functions specific to a person, is the mechanism of internalization (appropriation) of signs as a means of regulating mental activity.
Signs, being a product of social development, bear the imprint of the culture of the society in which the child grows up. Children learn signs in the process of communication and begin to use them to manage their inner mental life. Thanks to the internalization of signs, the sign function of consciousness is formed in children, and the formation of such higher mental functions as logical thinking, will, and speech occurs. The use of a sign, a word as a specifically human mental regulator reconstructs all higher mental functions of a person. Mechanical memory becomes logical, the associative flow of ideas becomes productive thinking and creative imagination, impulsive actions become voluntary actions.
Relationship between training and development
Development is a process of quantitative and qualitative changes in the body, nervous system, psyche, and personality. Education is a process of purposeful transfer of socio-historical experience, organization of the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities.
Vygotsky identified and summarized the following most widely accepted points of view on the question of the relationship between training and development:
- Training and development are two processes independent from each other . Development is considered as a process that occurs according to the type of maturation, and learning is considered as a purely external use of development opportunities. Training is built on top of development and does not change anything in essence. When analyzing mental development, they try to separate what comes from development and what comes from learning.
- Training and development are two identical processes . A step in learning corresponds to a step in development. A child is only as developed as he is trained.
- Training and development are closely related processes . Development is understood dualistically: there is development as maturation and there is development as learning. On the one hand, development is thought of as a process independent of learning. On the other hand, learning, during which the child acquires new forms of behavior, is identified with development. Development (maturation) prepares and makes possible the learning process, and learning, as it were, stimulates the development (maturation) process. The processes of learning and development are separated, and at the same time their relationship is established.
Vygotsky contrasts these theories with his own, according to which learning and development are not two independent processes or the same process; there is “unity, but not identity, of the learning processes and internal development processes.” According to Vygotsky, it is neither correct to identify the processes of learning and development, nor to assume that the development process occurs independently of the learning process. He argues that there is a complex relationship between learning and development.
Modern ideas about HPF
The most widespread among the teachings devoted to the highest mental activity of man was the teaching of A.R. Luria, in which he defines HMF as complex self-regulating reflexes, social in origin, mediated in structure and conscious, voluntary in the method of implementation. Let's consider each of the postulates included in this definition.
Reflex nature of HMF. This idea of A.R. Luria corresponds to the views shared by the greatest scientists A.N. Leontiev, L. S. Vygotsky and others, as well as materialistic ideas that any human activity is basically reflexive, since it is carried out on the basis of a reflection of reality.
A.R. Luria also recognized that HMF are dependent on the results of the evolution of the human psyche.
He considered it fundamentally important in evolutionary terms that the reflected reality appears to a person not only in the form of natural stimuli, as for most animals, but also in the form of a man-made world created by him - civilization.
Operating with objects of civilization makes the human psyche qualitatively different from the psyche of all other biospecies living on earth. Consequently, all the integral features of HMF arise from both the biologicality of the psyche and its sociality.
Self-regulating nature of HMF. This statement is based primarily on the fact of the spontaneous maturation of brain structures that carry out higher mental activity, and their subsequent subordination to the objective laws of implementation biologically embedded in the human nervous system.
Mediation of HMF. This definition once again emphasizes that in order to carry out higher mental activity it is necessary to operate
1) objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, relating both to nature and to what is created by people,
2) sign, communication systems.
At the same time, sign systems are initially external (exteriorized) in nature, and over time, many signs, as they are assimilated, “go inside” (interiorized).
Thus, during the period of learning words, children actively work with various objects, especially toys; when learning to count, they use their fingers and other external counting supports (sticks, circles, etc.).
In a later period, the need for these supports is internalized. However, they are not fully analyzed, and in addition, some rules of grammar, many mathematical and other skills and rules are acquired and used without extracting their algorithm - directly from memory.
And finally, consciousness, the arbitrariness of higher mental activity lies in the fact that a person can be aware of himself as a separate phenomenon of reality, feel his “I”. He is able to evaluate his knowledge and arbitrarily change the content of acquired skills and abilities.
Only humans have such an invaluable gift as awareness and its consequence—voluntariness of activity.
None of the biospecies known to us, except humans, are capable of awareness of themselves, their knowledge and the surrounding reality. An animal may be more skilled in something, but not aware of it, unable to compare itself with someone else.
The social nature of HPF. A. R. Luria recognized the fundamentally important fact that the content and level of the formed psyche determine in one way or another the prevailing circumstances of life.
Thus, children growing up outside society do not acquire HMF in their human form at all. This can be clearly seen in the well-known Mowgli children raised by animals.
The most widely represented in the mature brain are HMFs that have a certain, albeit dynamic, localization (later this concept will be discussed in more detail), and therefore can be disrupted by certain local (focal) brain lesions.
The neuropsychology of HMF disorders with local lesions has received the greatest recognition and distribution. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for neuropsychology in general.
Other areas of neuropsychology receive less attention. Thus, the neuropsychology of norms and the neuropsychology of mental illnesses have not been sufficiently studied, although recently there has been a tendency towards the formation of a new, integrative field of knowledge - neuropsychiatry.
Neuropsychology of development (childhood) and neuropsychology of old age are also at the beginning of active development.
The greatest prevalence and scope of the neuropsychology of local lesions of the HMF is explained by the fact that they are the most frequent, and their consequences are the most obvious.
Using their example, it is possible to objectively, based on visual inspection, record which specific function is damaged or completely lost when a certain area of the brain is damaged.
It is not without reason that it was precisely such observations in the field of local brain lesions that served as the beginning of the development of neuropsychology as a separate scientific discipline.
In each of the above sections, neuropsychology studies the following features of HMF: psychological structure; cerebral localization (topic); various types of violations; principles and methods of recovery correction.
The doctrine of HMF as a whole can confidently be called the cornerstone of neuropsychology. It was this that led to the differentiated study of the functional specialization of various areas of the brain, or, in other words, to the development of the doctrine of localization.
As already noted, the center of scientific interest of neuropsychology is the cerebral cortex - its highest levels, and, above all, what specialization its individual zones have.
In this sense, the war turned out to be a unique, spontaneously occurring experiment, which produced a colossal amount of cranial wounds in practically healthy young people. This tragic circumstance made it possible not only to calculate, but to see with one’s own eyes exactly where the brain is damaged, and to record which function “falls out.”
Work on studying a colossal number of such wounds was carried out by A. R. Luria and his students and associates. The results obtained have brought our science to the forefront.
The most important result of these studies was reliable information about the localization of various HMFs, which confirmed the isolated findings of the classics of neurology (L. Broca, K. Wernicke, etc.) that there are local HMFs, namely those that can be carried out not at the expense of the entire brain , but only to any specific area of it.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
To explain the question of the influence of learning on development, Vygotsky introduced the concept of two levels of child development :
- The zone of actual development is the level of development already achieved by the child. This is the level of intellectual tasks that he is able to solve completely independently, without the help of an adult. The level of the child’s actual development shows us what mental processes have already developed in him, i.e. in fact, by its current development we can judge the already completed development cycles.
- Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) . It is revealed not in the child’s independent, but in joint problem solving with adults. The second level is higher than the first, since with the help of an adult the child is able to solve more complex problems. These are discrepancies between the level of actual development (it is determined by the degree of difficulty of problems solved by the child independently) and the level of potential development (which the child can achieve by solving problems under the guidance of an adult and in collaboration with peers). The ZPD defines mental functions that are in the process of maturation. ZPD is a consequence of the formation of higher mental functions, which are formed first in joint activity, in cooperation with other people, and gradually become internal mental processes of the subject.
Vygotsky made the following conclusions: 1) learning creates a zone of proximal development, which then moves into the sphere of actual development; 2) learning moves development forward, relying not only on mature functions, but also on those that are still maturing. Education must come before development. And therefore Vygotsky makes the main conclusion: pedagogy should focus not on yesterday’s, but on tomorrow’s development (i.e., on the child’s zone of proximal development). What a child does today in collaboration with an adult, tomorrow he will do independently. Thus, training and upbringing play a leading role in the mental development of a child.
The concept of higher mental functions (HMF). Laws and properties of VPF.
Higher mental functions are mental processes that are social in origin, mediated in structure, arbitrary in nature of regulation and systemically connected with each other. Higher mental functions are cultural, not natural mental processes; they are determined not by genetics, but by society and human culture.
· Social in origin - suggests that this is not something innate, these processes are formed during life under the direct influence of culture (family, school, etc.). The main mechanism is interiorization, the internalization of the external into the internal.
· Indirect in structure - the internal tool for their implementation are cultural signs. First of all, this is speech; in general, it is ideas about what is accepted and understandable in a culture.
· Arbitrary in nature of regulation - a person can consciously control them.
Laws of development of HMF - 1. Law of mediation - in the process of phylo- and ontogenesis there is a transition from natural forms and modes of behavior to mediated (artificial) mental functions that arose in the process of cultural development.
2. Fundamental law - “every function in the cultural development of a child appears on the stage twice, on two levels, first social, as an interpsychic category, then psychological, as an intrapsychic category, first between people, then inside the child.” VMF is voluntary memory, voluntary attention, logical M., etc.
3. The law of interiorization - transfer from the external to the internal plane. Every mental function appears as a result of a transition from outside to inside. The child is able to use the means learned in the practice of joint activities to manage his own behavior. It becomes voluntary and conscious.
4. General genetic . In the process of development, the child begins to apply to himself those forms and methods of behavior that others initially applied to him.
Basic properties of VPF:
1. Social in essence, not needed by an individual, divided among themselves by people (Function of the word)
2. Indirect in nature. People are connected by speech signs. VPF: appears twice: at the level of external means and as an internal process.
3. Arbitrary in the process of formation (arbitrariness is the result of indirectness, assimilation of means).
4. Systemic in structure (created on the basis of several natural functions; HMFs are interconnected and do not arise separately).
The central concept of Vygotsky's theory is the concept of HMF , which only humans have. There are 4 properties that characterize HMF and distinguish them from natural ones:
1) HMPs in their structure are mediated psychological tools that are created in society in the process of its cultural and historical development, the most important of which is language;
social in origin , that is, they arise only in society as a result of the appropriation of all developed psychological tools;
3) HMFs are arbitrary ; thanks to the psychological tools used (primarily language), a person gets the opportunity to manage his psyche and behavior;
4) these functions are systemic , that is, they always arise as integral systems of various HMFs closely connected with each other (memory, attention, perception, memory, speech), therefore, the appearance of HMFs in a person is accompanied by a radical transformation of his psyche, it becomes different compared to the psyche of animals.
The problem of training and development in the work of LSV. The concept of “zone of proximal development”, its theoretical and practical significance . The environment acts as a source of development in relation to the development of higher mental functions. Man is a social being; without interaction with society, he will never develop in himself those qualities that have developed as a result of the development of all humanity. Higher mental functions arise initially as a form of collective behavior of the child, as a form of cooperation with other people, and only subsequently do they become individual functions of the child himself. Attitudes towards the environment change with age, and, consequently, the role of the environment in development also changes. The environment must be viewed relatively, since the influence of the environment is determined by the child’s experiences. L.S. Vygotsky formulated a number of laws of child mental development: 1. Child development has a complex organization in time: its own rhythm, which does not coincide with the rhythm of time, and its own rhythm, which changes in different years of life. 2. The law of metamorphosis in child development: development is a chain of qualitative changes. A child is not just a small adult who knows less or can do less, but a being with a qualitatively different psyche. 3. The law of uneven child development: each side in the child’s psyche has its own optimal period of development. 4. The law of development of higher mental functions. Higher mental functions arise initially as a form of collective behavior, as a form of cooperation with other people, and only subsequently do they become internal individual (forms) of functions of the child himself. The specificity of child development is that it is subject to the action of socio-historical laws. A person does not have innate forms of behavior in the environment. Its development occurs through the appropriation of historically developed forms and methods of activity. The driving force of mental development is learning. Development and learning are different processes. The development process has internal laws of self-expression. Development is the process of formation of a person or personality, accomplished through the emergence at each stage of new qualities specific to a person, prepared by the entire previous course of development, but not contained in a ready-made form at earlier stages. Education is an internally necessary and universal moment in the process of development in a child of not natural, but historical human characteristics. Learning is not the same as development. It creates a zone of proximal development, that is, it brings to life in the child, awakens and sets in motion internal processes of development, which at first are possible for the child only in the sphere of relationships with others and cooperation with friends, but then, permeating the entire internal course of development, they become an asset the child himself. Learning is only good when it goes ahead of development. Then it awakens and brings to life many other functions that lie in the zone of proximal development. In relation to school, this means that teaching should focus not so much on already matured functions and completed development cycles, but rather on maturing functions. Learning opportunities are largely determined by the zone of proximal development. Learning, of course, can be oriented towards developmental cycles that have already been completed - this is the lowest threshold of learning, but it can be oriented towards functions that have not yet matured, towards the zone of proximal development, which characterizes the highest threshold of learning. Between these thresholds lies the optimal learning period. One of the proofs of the influence of education on a child’s mental development is L.S. Vygotsky’s hypothesis about the systemic and semantic structure of consciousness and its development in ontogenesis. Human consciousness is not the sum of individual processes, but a system, their structure. No function develops in isolation. The development of each function depends on what structure it is included in and what place it occupies in it. Thus, at an early age, perception is at the center of consciousness, at preschool age - memory, at school age - thinking. All other mental processes develop at each age under the influence of the dominant function in consciousness. restructuring of the systemic structure of consciousness, which is caused by a change in its semantic structure, that is, the level of development of generalizations. Entry into consciousness is possible only through speech and the transition from one structure of consciousness to another is carried out thanks to the development of the meaning of the word, in other words, generalization. If the systemic development of learning consciousness does not have a direct impact, then the development of generalization and, consequently, changes in the semantic structure of consciousness can be directly controlled. By forming a generalization and transferring it to a higher level, learning rebuilds the entire system of consciousness. Therefore, according to L.S. Vygotsky, “one step in learning can mean a hundred steps in development.”
ZPD - the discrepancy between the level of actual development and the level of potential development UAR - problems of such complexity that a child can solve himself ZPD - problems solved with the help of adults ZPD speaks of the leading role of learning in development
Vygotsky believed that the emergence of sign systems in culture had a huge impact on human cognitive development. Vygotsky recognizes the role of the natural line of development (after Piaget and Gesell). This natural line dominates the development of a child up to 2 years of age. But then the growth of the child’s thinking abilities is mainly influenced by the second line, the cultural line of development - these are systems of signs functioning in culture. All unique human achievements that distinguish us from animals, according to Vygotsky, would be impossible if humans did not have speech and other sign systems. The development of higher thinking abilities (abstract and theoretical) requires training in writing, counting and other abstract disciplines. Children are also capable of independently forming concepts (based on everyday experience), but they are not able to develop the ability for purely abstract thinking without learning to operate with abstract systems of signs. Example: expedition. Conduct field research. The question about the Far North among the people of Central Asia is asked as a logical problem. (about bears) They had no experience and training. With additional preparation, you can get an answer. Vygotsky recognized the role of internal factors, but believed that all external understanding is not possible without studying the psychological tools that culture provides to the child and the use of which it requires him to use. Each function is both external social and then internal interpsychic. Mental functions, processes. Lower and higher mental functions. They are inferior when they are involuntary. And the highest ones are always arbitrary and indirect. Thanks to the name, we know our entire ancestry. L.S. made a great contribution to the development of the issue of the relationship between training and development. Vygotsky, who emphasized the leading role of training and education in the development of the individual, considered them the decisive force of development. The idea of L.S. was interesting and significant for the practice of development management. Vygotsky about two levels of children’s development: the level of actual development, which characterizes the existing characteristics of the child’s mental functions and has developed today, and the zone of proximal development. He wrote: What a child is able to do with the help of an adult indicates his zone of proximal development, which helps us determine the child’s future, the dynamic state of his development. Thus, the state of a child’s mental development can be determined at least by identifying its two levels—the level of actual development and the zone of proximal development. Having put forward this position, Vygotsky emphasized that when teaching and upbringing, on the one hand, one cannot make excessive demands on the child that do not correspond to the level of his current development and immediate capabilities. But at the same time, knowing what he can do today with the help of an adult, leading questions on his part, examples, demonstration, and tomorrow - on his own, the teacher can purposefully improve the development of children in accordance with the requirements of society.
