References

• Chapter 4 — Berk, L. (1998). Development through the Lifespan. Allyn & Bacon.
• Chapter 4 — Richardson, K. (1998). Models of Cognitive Development. Psychology Press.
• Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society. Harvard.

Vygotsky’s theory

• the progressive build-up of representations and processes as a result of human actions on the world, on the basis of elementary biological "givens" (Richardson).
• Vygotsky's works were suppressed after his death, e.g. Thought and Language, was unpublished in the West until 1962. Consequently, the impact of his ideas is only beginning to be felt in Western psychology.
• For Vygotsky, mental processes can only be understood by looking at what they develop from and what they develop into. Of particular importance was the role of interpersonal (social) interaction.
• Wertsch (1985) identified three main themes in Vygotsky's theory: (i) a genetic method; (ii) the social origin of the higher mental functions; (iii) the principle of semiotic mediation.

• Vygotsky's assumption was that human mental functioning can only be understood in terms of its development from more primitive forms. Vygotsky highlighted a distinction between the elementary mental functions (EMF) and the higher mental functions (HMF).

• The EMFs develop along the natural line of development (sometimes referred to as the biological line), e.g. natural (non-mediated) memory, non-voluntary attention, etc.

• The HMFs develop along the cultural line of development (sometimes referred to as the social/historical line), e.g. mediated memory, voluntary attention, problem-solving, etc.

• Vygotsky's main claim about the HMF was that they emerge in context of interpersonal interaction. This gave rise to his general law of cultural development:

• A key implication of general law of cultural development. is that the unit of analysis for psychological investigation is the adult-child dyad rather than the individual child. Thinking, in this case, starts off as a shared activity.

• One can learn more about children’s potential for development from their performance in collaboration with an expert other than from solo performance.

• Hence the notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), defined as,

• Mediation of thought processes by words and other culturally derived signs can be seen as an example of a characteristic carried over from the interpsychological to the intrapsychological plane.

• For Vygotsky, words/signs fulfil the role of psychological tool. A crucial feature of the HMF is 'the creation and use of artificial stimuli which become the immediate causes of behaviour'

• Psychological tools can be organic (e.g. eye, hand, ear) or cultural. The latter all those aspects of HMF that are the result of cooperatively organised activities. These include cultural devices for sharing the way we think about our environment (e.g. number systems, language, writing symbols) as well as complex social rules. Hence, other cultures may develop alternative cultural tools (e.g. street maths of Brazilian children, Saxe 1988).

• Thought and language develop upon independent tracks until around the age of 2 - from then on they intermingle, providing the growing child with a uniquely human form of behaviour.

• The role of language and in particular the childs use of speech is a crucial part of Vygotsky's theory. His notion of the role speech plays in directing the childs behaviour.

Piaget vs Vygotsky: Private speech

• Piaget (1923) - young children typically accompany their play with utterances that are not apparently adapted for any communicative function. P accordingly labelled this egocentric speech (or Private speech, Flavell 1966), taking it as evidence of young children's egocentricity.

• Speech was assumed to have any function in development, beyond playful reduction of tension.

• Vygotsky, rather than seeing the main developmental transition as egocentric to socialised (i.e. Piaget), argued that speech begins as a social activity and is later internalised to create the individual intellect. Private speech represents an essential stage in the developing use of words (psychological tools) to control the behaviour of the self.

• EGOCENTRISM > SOCIALISED INTELLECT
• private speech > social speech

• SOCIAL INTERACTION > INDIVIDUAL INTELLECT
• social speech > private speech > inner speech

• As children get older and find tasks easier, their self directed PS is internalised as silent inner speech - this is the foundation on which the HMF such as memory, planning and reasoning are based.

• Vygotsky supported his view of PS with a number of experimental studies.

• Deliberate introduction of obstacles to child's activity, PS almost doubled (Vygotsky, 1934/1986).

• If PS is 'para-social' in nature, removing the impression of an audience should reduce its incidence. In such situations, PS reduced sharply in comparison with controls (Vygotsky, 1934/1986).

• Children use more private speech when tasks are difficult and they are confused how to proceed (Berk, 1992).
• Private speech goes underground with age, changing into whispers and silent lip movements (Berk, 1994).
• Children who use PS freely during a difficult task are more attentive and do better than less talkative (Berk & Spuhl, 1995).

• But - enormous inter-individual variation in incidence of PS (Frauenglass and Diaz, 1985).

• Evidence is largely in favour of Vygotsky's account. Hence, PS has two main roles in the socialisation of the intellect. First, it represents the path through which mental dialogue is established. Second, it allows the mediation of thought by culturally derived signs (i.e. words).

• Rather than rejecting Piaget's account out of hand, however, it may be possible to provide a (partial) reconciliation of Piaget's and Vygotsky's ideas on the phenomenon. It may be that the two theorists were making accurate claims about two different types of speech behaviour - egocentric (i.e. non-adaptive) and self-regulatory.