Lecture
In the context of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical conception, a necessary condition for the actualization of the basic processes was the activity of the subject.
The specific methodological conditions merely allowed the subject to display the possibility of moving to a new level of psychological regulation, but did not determine this transition. Thus, the IVs acted not as influencing factors but as conditions.
The method of double stimulation.
- Vygotsky and Sakharov, on the basis of Ach’s method of «artificial words», developed the principle of this method.
Here the artificial name of a group of objects served as a stimulus-means (a stimulus of the second series), used by the subject to classify these objects (stimuli of the first series).
Subsequent modifications of the procedure of forming artificial concepts appeared in the methods of Bruner and Tikhomirov.
- Leontiev. A study of mediated memorization.
The first stimulus series is a list of words that the subject must memorize;
the second series of stimuli is cards with pictures.
The «parallelogram of development»
Two lines of development: the improvement of external means and the transition from external to internal means (internalization). The development of the higher forms of memory proceeds through memorization with the help of external stimulus-signs.
- Josephine Schif. A study of the formation of scientific and everyday concepts.
Unlike Leontiev’s experiment, the processes identified by Schif did not undergo formation in the subject’s activity during the course of the experiment.
The task: to complete phrases that break off at the conjunctions «because» and «although».
The second series of stimuli in its literal representation was absent, but was set by the change of material, that is, it was represented in the changing content of the tasks.
The manipulated variable here is actualized by a combination of experimental conditions («the possibility of using complex subordinate sentences»). The process of the operational use of concepts was set at two levels: for scientific concepts – in the situation of interaction with the teacher, for everyday concepts – without assistance.
The conjunction factor (although, because) appears as the second varied variable.
The difference between the conjunctions sets the levels of formedness of certain conceptual generalizations: causal relations (because) are formed earlier than adversative ones.
The variable «age» serves merely as one of the conditions for setting an analogue of the IV «levels of conceptual thinking». There is also some connection here with the ZPD.
When solving tasks with the help of scientific concepts, the child had to make use of the results of previous cooperation with the teacher.
The scheme of the methodological technique of double stimulation.
Three age cross-sections are defined (groups of subjects of different ages), or three levels of functional development of the process under study are set by the experimental conditions. Three points define the agreement and disagreement of the levels of immediate and mediated psychological regulation (the parallelogram). Two diverging sides represent two paths of the further development of the function: the productivity of the subject in ordinary performance of the task (with the first series of stimuli) and in mediated performance (with the second series of stimuli, psychological tools). The third point is the completion of the formation of the mediated function (internal mnemonic techniques, the conceptual structures used, etc.).
An important addition is the development of the concept of psychological systems. Concepts assimilated by the child in a system at school surpassed everyday concepts in the level of their awareness and voluntariness. That is, the development of scientific concepts proceeds faster than that of spontaneous ones, which allowed Vygotsky to substantiate the idea that «instruction runs ahead of development».
- COLE. An understanding of culture as in Wundt (or as in cross-cultural research). Artifact, context, and mediated action. The triangle: subject-object-artifact (the means and carrier of the cultural origin of the higher mental functions)
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