ENGL 721 Psycholinguistics Mila Veshcherevich
Luria, A. (1976). Cognitive
development: Its cultural and social foundations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
A brief overview of theories and studies in the field of human mind. The initial assumption: social forms of life determine human mental development. The aim of the research: an analysis of sociohistorical shaping of mental processes. The site: Central Asia. Procedures: a full-fledged experimental inquiry. Research Plan: The essential features of mental processes depend on the way they reflect reality; therefore a particular form of mental activity should correspond to a particular level of this reflection. The subjects could solve the problems either on a concrete, graphic-functional level or on an abstract, verbal and logical one. The subjects: illiterate male peasants, illiterate women, collective farm activists, barely literate women students in short preschool courses, and women students at a teachers’ school.
Perception is a complex cognitive activity employing auxiliary devices and involving the intimate participation of language. All visual perception has a complex semantic and system-based structure that changes with historical development. The focus is on designation and classification of color hues and naming and classification of geometrical shapes and figures; grouping colors and shapes. Results: there was a clear predominance in graphic and object names of colors among all the subjects; in shapes the illiterate subjects used object-oriented names, while the literate ones used predominantly categorical names.
Chapter 3: Generalization and Abstraction
A brief history of experiments on classification. When grouping, most of the illiterate subjects preferred to group objects not according to ‘similarity’, but according to ‘suitability for a specific purpose’, however, later they were able to overcome this tendency and demonstrated some capacity for engaging in abstract cognitive activities. It was noted that the word ‘similar’ meant different things for different people. Subsequently, tests on the detection of similarity, on the definition of concepts, and on meaning of generic terms were conducted. Results: The material demonstrates the modes of generalization that typify the thinking of people who have been shaped by social, economic, and cultural conditions. The mode of thought, however, undergoes a radical transformation once the conditions of people are changed. Education alters the nature of cognitive activity and facilitates this transition.
Chapter 4: Deduction and Inference
The focus is on the nature of discursive, logical thinking at the stage of graphic and functional forms of reflection of reality. The device: the syllogism. The aim: to show how the process of inference from syllogism occurred. The procedure: the subjects were presented a syllogism and asked to repeat it to determine if they perceived the premises as part of a single logical schema or as isolated judgments. Results: For nonliterate subjects, the processes of reasoning and deduction associated with familiar context follow well-known rules; limitations in capability of theoretical thinking. The literate subjects were able to transfer their judgment to abstract level.
Chapter 5: Reasoning and Problem-Solving
Problem-solving forms a model of complex intellectual processes, combining the operations of logical inference, interrelations of premises, and deduction. The subjects were asked to solve a simple problem, concrete in content and numerical make-up, and a hypothetical (conflict) problem. Results: simple computational operations used in everyday practical affairs presented no difficulties, but when the conditions of the problem contradicted actual practical experience, the solution exceeded the capacities of most of the illiterate subjects. Literate or barely literate subjects, however, demonstrated evidence to such capacities.
Chapter 6: Imagination
There are two levels of imagination: reproductive (linked to practical experience) and creative (occurs within verbal, logical thinking). The aim: to determine to what degree the subjects could formulate free questions and to what extent these questions went beyond immediate practical experience. Results: The illiterate subjects had considerable difficulties, some refused to pose any questions all together, other confused theoretical questions with practical demands. The barely literate subjects asked questions of knowledge (about social life and related areas).
Chapter 7: Self-Analysis and Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is a product of consciousness of the external world and other people; it is a secondary, socially shaped phenomenon. The aim: to determine the extent to which the subjects were able to treat their own inner life in a generalized fashion, to single out particular psychological traits in themselves, to analyze their interior world, and to evaluate their intrinsic qualities. Results: such analysis went beyond the capabilities of most of the subjects; some relied on what other people said about them. At a certain stage of social development, the analysis of one’s own individual particularities gave way to analysis of group behavior (‘I’ vs. ‘we’); at the later stages (among young collective farm activists) there were some evidence of singling out and evaluating personal qualities.
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Certain data that show the changes in the structure of mental processes associated with cognitive activity at different stages of historical development, and the major shifts that have occurred in these processes under the impact of a social and cultural revolution have been considered in this book. The investigations were conducted under unique and nonreplicable conditions.