Leading mental function. The concept of higher mental functions (HMF)

Higher mental functions are complex mental processes that are formed during life, social in origin, mediated in psychological structure and arbitrary in the way they are implemented. V.p.f. - one of the main concepts modern psychology, introduced into Russian psychological science by L. S. Vygotsky.

Higher mental functions: logical memory, purposeful thinking, creative imagination, voluntary actions, speech, writing, counting, movements, perceptual processes (perception processes)). 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; therefore, speech mediation of HMF is the most universal way of their formation.

VPF structure

For Vygotsky, a sign (word) is the “psychological tool” through which consciousness is built. The sign plays an important role in the structure of the VPF. It becomes a means of mediation between one act of human activity and another (for example, in order to remember something we use an information encoding system in order to reproduce it later). At the same time, the very nature of the structure of higher mental functions can be designated as systemic. VPF is a system that is hierarchical in nature, i.e. some parts of this system are subordinate to others. But the HMF system is not a static formation; throughout a person’s life it changes both in the parts of which it consists and in the relationship between them.

Distinctive properties of VPF (specifics)

Arbitrariness (a person controls his own mental function, i.e. a person sets tasks and goals). VPFs are arbitrary according to the method of implementation. Thanks to mediation, a person is able to realize his functions and carry out activities in a certain direction, anticipating a possible result, analyzing his experience, adjusting behavior and activities, awareness of the mental function;

Mediocrity (means are used). The mediation of HMFs is visible in the ways they function. The development of the ability for symbolic activity and mastery of a sign is the main component of mediation. A word, image, number and other possible identifying signs of a phenomenon (for example, a hieroglyph as the unity of a word and an image) determine the semantic perspective of comprehending the essence at the level of unity of abstraction and concretization, sociality in origin. HPFs are determined by their origin. They can only develop through the process of people interacting with each other.

Development of the VPF

Laws of formation.

Vygotsky identified the laws of formation of the HMF:

1. The law of transition from natural to cultural (mediated by tools and signs) forms of behavior. It can be called the “law of mediation.”

2. The law of transition from social to individual forms of behavior (means of social forms of behavior in the process of development become means of individual forms of behavior).

3. The law of transition of functions from outside to inside. “We call this process of transition of operations from outside to inside the law of rotation.” Later, in a different context, L.S. Vygotsky will formulate another law, which, in our opinion, can be considered a continuation of this series.

4. "General law development is that awareness and mastery are characteristic only of the highest stage in the development of any function. They arise late." Obviously, it can be called the "law of awareness and mastery."

Activity. General psychological characteristics of activity

Activity - This is a type of organized and socially determined human activity aimed at knowledge and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence. Animals also have activity, but unlike animals, whose activity is consumer-based, without producing or creating anything new compared to what is given by nature, human activity is productive, creative, creative in nature.

Human activity is objective, i.e. associated with objects of material and spiritual culture, which are used by him as tools, as means of his own development, or as objects to satisfy needs. Animals perceive human tools and means of satisfying their needs as ordinary natural objects, without taking into account their cultural and spiritual significance. In the process of activity, a person transforms himself, develops his abilities, needs, and living conditions. During the activity of animals, changes in themselves or in the external conditions of life are much less pronounced. Activity is the result of the biological evolution of living beings, while human activity in its various forms and means is a product of history.

The activity of animals is genotypically determined and develops with the natural anatomical and physiological maturation of the organism. A newborn child initially does not have objective activity; it is formed in the process of upbringing and training, in parallel with the development of internal, neurophysiological and psychological structures that control outside practical activities. Activity is closely related to behavior, but differs from this concept in activity, focus on creating a certain product. It is organized and systematic.

A. N. Leontyev - implementation of the activity approach to the analysis of psychological phenomena. Activity is considered here as the subject of analysis, since the psyche itself cannot be separated from the moments of activity that generate and mediate it, and the psyche itself is a form of objective activity. When deciding on the relationship between external practical activity and consciousness, he proceeded from the position that the internal plane of consciousness is formed in the process of collapsing initially practical actions.

The concept of activity in theory S. L. Rubinshtein - implementation of the activity approach to the analysis of psychological phenomena. The psyche is considered here as the subject of analysis through the disclosure of its essential objective connections and mediations, in particular through activity. When deciding the question of the relationship between external practical activity and consciousness, he proceeded from the position that one cannot consider “internal” mental activity as being formed as a result of the collapse of “external” practical activity.

Activities considered B. F. Lomov as a socio-historical category that captures the active (transformative) nature of human existence: “It is in the process of activity that the subjective reflection of an object (subject of activity) is carried out, and at the same time the transformation of this object into its product in accordance with the subjective goal” (1984) . Initially, psychology studies activity at the level of individual existence, as the activity of a specific person implementing one or another society. function.

In the activity of an individual, psychology is not interested in its content or structure (subject, means, conditions, product) in itself, but in the subjective plane: forms, types, levels and dynamics of the psyche. reflections of reality. It is in activity that the psyche is revealed as a developing whole (system); the activity itself acts as a quality leading determinant of mental processes. One of the most confusing and pressing questions of psychology - about the relationship between the reflection (psyche) of ideation - was solved by B. F. Lomov from the position of the principle of the unity of “external” and “internal”, formulated and substantiated by S. L. Rubinstein (1957).

At the same time, Lomov emphasized, the internal also changes under the influence of the external (1984). Ideas about the psychological structure of individual activity were developed by Lomov based on the research of various. types of operator labor. In his opinion, the mechanism is mental. regulation of activity is the subject of its actual psychol. study - is a multi-level system, components, or components, which are: motive, goal, conceptual model, activity plan, actions, as well as the processes of processing current information, decision-making, checking results and correcting actions.

A. R. Luria used the concept of a functional system developed in physiology and applied it to the analysis of mental processes and mental functions. To do this, it was necessary to resolve the issue of similarities and differences between the physiological and mental functional systems. He gave a definition of higher mental function (HMF), focused on the concept of a functional system. The use of this concept made it possible to continue the development of a systematic approach to the analysis of mental functions, developed in Russian psychology of that time.

Higher mental functions are “complex, self-regulating processes, social in origin, mediated in their structure and conscious, voluntary in the way they function” (Luria A.R., 1969. – P. 3).

In this definition, A. R. Luria completed the formulation proposed by L. S. Vygotsky, pointing out the main features of mental systems: the social nature of their formation, sign mediation, awareness, arbitrariness (Meshcheryakov B. G., 1999). The social origin of HMFs and their subordination to the cultural and historical conditions in which they are formed and by which they are mediated are emphasized; the method of their formation is chronogenic, in the process of socialization, during the gradual mastery of social forms of behavior; their structural specificity psychological structure– the initial involuntary behavior of the child, which, as the HMF develops, is replaced by voluntary, hierarchically higher forms of regulation (first together with an adult, and then independently).

The concept of localization

The introduction of the concept of “functional system” instead of “function” removes the question of the narrow localization of mental functions in the cortex. Defining a mental function as a functional system removes the question of its localization only in one specific brain zone. Mental function must rely on the cumulative, joint work of a number of areas of the brain located in different parts of it. Here the main question becomes what contribution each part of the brain makes to the implementation of a holistic mental function.
In the ontogenetic aspect, this question can be posed as follows: how and to what extent different parts of the brain perform their characteristic functions at different age periods.

A. R. Luria writes that the material basis of any mental function is “the entire brain as a whole, but the brain as a highly differentiated system, the parts of which provide different aspects of a single whole” (Luria A. R., 1969. - P. 31).

For the maturing brain, the question of paramount importance is: what is the degree of morphofunctional differentiation of its various parts and how is its holistic, integrative work ensured at different age periods?
The solution to the problem of localization of mental functions proposed by A. R. Luria made it possible to define neuropsychology as a science that studies the role of individual brain structures in human behavior.
Accordingly, it is possible to define the subject, object and tasks of childhood neuropsychology as one of the areas of neuropsychology.

The subject of childhood neuropsychology is the study of the relationship between the state of higher mental functions and the brain mechanisms that determine them in children and adolescents in normal ontogenesis and in the presence of brain pathology.

To determine a specific object of research in neuropsychology in general and childhood neuropsychology in particular, the concepts of “mental process” and “mental function” should be distinguished. The concept of “mental function” means a set of mental processes necessary to obtain a certain functional result (for example, perception as a set of processes united by the achieved result - the image of an object, memory - updating information, thinking - obtaining a solution to a problem situation, etc.).
The concept of “mental process” should be understood as the procedural, operational component of a mental function, that is, each of the various parts, the synthesis of which will allow us to obtain a certain mental reality, a completed result.

For example, perception as a mental function (with the result “recognition of a presented object”) includes a number of processes: sensory analysis physical characteristics object, synthesis sensory signs into a perceptual image, comparison of the resulting image with a standard, its categorization, etc. Memory function - perception, repetition of information or its search in phonetic, semantic fields, identification of organizational principles of stimulus material, etc. Each of these processes determines the intermediate result , but does not give the final product, the process reflects some specific aspect, mental quality, without which it is impossible to obtain the whole. Moreover, one or another mental process can be an integral part of both different and only individual mental functions.

In the above definition that A. R. Luria gave to higher mental functions, the following points were emphasized:

Process composition of mental function;
ontogenetic formation of systems of mental processes;
lack of direct isomorphism between the environment and the content of mental function (mediation);
the possibility of conscious, voluntary restructuring (regulation) of mental function.

The material basis of any mental function is neurophysiological functional systems, representing hierarchically organized constellations of a number of brain zones. Each brain zone is associated with the work of only its inherent neural mechanisms. Neurophysiological systems act as a mediator that transmits environmental influences to the mental sphere as completely and accurately as possible. The appearance of certain individual qualities, characteristics, properties of the mental, in turn, becomes the content of the work of various mental processes. These contents are derived from neurophysiological processes occurring in nervous mechanisms located in different parts of the brain, and become components, links of psychological functional systems, mental functions.
The consolidation of mental processes into psychological functional systems is a combination of these individual contents (properties, characteristics of what is reflected) that corresponds to the result of the activity being carried out. In psychological functional systems, the information received acquires subjective bias; they determine the individual way of interaction of different subjects with the environment. This becomes possible due to those of its definitive characteristics that were discussed above. In other words, the productivity, completeness, and partiality of the content of mental functions is determined by how these systems and their constituent mental processes were formed during ontogenesis.
Methodologically, the process approach to the analysis of the human mental sphere makes it possible to assess its state from the point of view of the contribution of each of the mental processes in such integrative formations as mental function, activity, behavior. In this regard, the task arises of identifying and typology of inhomogeneous mental processes, which could be considered as the specific content of the work of individual links of a certain mental function.
But each link of the psychological functional system finds its support in the functioning of one or another part of the brain, and addressing the effectiveness of the mental process implies assessing the functioning of the corresponding part of the brain. What is found in external signs, determines the internal state, the cause that gives rise to external manifestations. This approach corresponds to what L. S. Vygotsky called scientific diagnostics, the main principle of which is the transition from symptomatic to clinical study of development and which can be opposed to traditional testological diagnostics (Vygotsky L.S., 1984. - T. 4).
D. B. Elkonin believes that the task of creating means of monitoring the progress mental development must be resolved along the path of analysis individual species activities and their hierarchization.
One of the general lines of development of individual mental functions in various periods of childhood, mainly in preschool and primary school age, is the line of mastering the means of performing mental functions. These means, according to D. B. Elkonin, should be considered not as separate abilities, but as special forms actions that make up the operational content of individual types of activities (sensory, mnemonic and other actions). Each of the types of “mental actions must be subjected to control, since only the totality of data on the level of their development can characterize the level of development of the operational side of the activity and at the same time identify places of “retraction”” (Elkonin D. B., 1989. – P. 292 ).
The neuropsychological approach allows you to analyze the nature of the course of certain mental processes, that is, to control each mental process (mental operation, if you follow the logic of D. B. Elkonin), and on the basis of syndromic analysis to draw a conclusion about the specifics of the integration of individual mental processes into various mental functions , activities, behavior at different stages of age development.

Thus, if the subject of research in childhood neuropsychology is a mental function, then the object of research becomes mental processes that are considered as links in the structure of mental function and perform the task of representing the informative content of the “own function” in the human psyche (Luria A.R., 1969 . – P. 78) corresponding areas of the brain.

Such research becomes possible when using methods focused on analyzing the process composition of the mental functions being studied.
Accordingly, the leading task of childhood neuropsychology as one of the areas of neuropsychology is the study of the relationship between the formation of mental functions and brain maturation in normal ontogenesis and in the presence of brain pathology, which includes analysis:

The specifics of this relationship in different age periods;
patterns of child neuropsychic development;
disturbances, delays, deviations in mental functions that are a consequence of illness or other characteristics of work nervous system and lead to pathology or specificity of mental development and behavior.

2.3. The concepts of “symptom” and “factor”

The possibility of a neuropsychological analysis of the state of mental functions is associated with the study of symptoms indicating changes in their course. The presence of symptoms indicates some kind of dysfunction in mental function. In order to find out what is causing this trouble, it is necessary to “detailed analysis of the psychological structure of the emerging disorder and identify the immediate causes due to which the functional system collapsed” (Luria A.R., 1973. – P. 77). In other words, careful qualification of the observed symptom is required.
The qualification of a symptom means:

First, the search for what is characteristic, specific to this symptom and distinguishes it from other symptoms of a violation of the same function;
secondly, the search for what is common in the symptoms of disorders of various mental functions that occur with a specific local brain lesion;
thirdly, identifying (based on the first two steps) the cause that underlies this symptom and which brought this symptom to life.

Qualification different symptoms observed with a specific, local brain lesion, allows us to determine their characteristics; find those common properties that are determined by the work of one nervous mechanism, and give a conclusion about the localization of the lesion, that is, indicate the reason that caused the appearance of symptoms. This chain of interconnected phenomena - the work of the nervous mechanism, its location in a specific part of the brain, the psychological content of the work of the nervous mechanism - is referred to as a neuropsychological factor. The latter becomes a central concept that allows us to describe the diverse specificity of the functions of nervous mechanisms in different parts of the brain and the specificity of the processes generated by them. psychological properties and qualities.
Returning to the above definition of a mental process as an object of study in neuropsychology, we can say that the central psychological task in describing a factor is to identify which mental process a particular factor is associated with. The symptom in this case acts as an indicator of a violation of both a specific mental process that is part of this mental function, and this function as a whole.
The use of the neuropsychological factor as a methodological construct allows us to construct the following diagrams of the relationship between mental functions and brain centers:

(brain structure) → (function of brain structure) = (mental process) → (result of mental process = neuropsychological factor);

(set of jointly working brain zones = neurophysiological functional system) → (set of mental processes = mental functional system).

Brain structures with different morphofunctional specificities modulate certain mental processes in the course of their work. The productive part of these processes is found in the form of certain basic psychological qualities and properties, which are defined through the concept of “factor”. The factor thus acts as an indication of a specific type of work of a particular brain structure and, on the other hand, as an indication of one or another basic mental quality generated by this structure. For example, the work of the nervous mechanisms of the parieto-occipital region is responsible for such a mental quality as the display of spatial relationships (spatial factor), and the work of the nervous mechanisms of the premotor region of the brain is responsible for the smooth transition from one action to another during the performance of a particular type of activity (kinetic factor).
Neurophysiological functional systems include different brain centers that modulate certain mental processes that are included as links in mental functional systems corresponding to certain mental functions.

For example, the performance of objective actions includes processes associated, in particular, with the analysis and synthesis of kinetic, kinesthetic, spatial and a number of other characteristics that represent individual links of the psychological functional system. These links rely, respectively, on the work of the premotor, postcentral, parieto-occipital and other parts of the brain, which, in turn, are part of the neurophysiological functional system that provides objective actions (Mikadze Yu. V., 1991; Volkov A. M. , Mikadze Yu.V., Solntseva G.N., 1987).

2.4. The concepts of “syndromic analysis” and “neuropsychological syndrome”

The symptom revealed in the examination indicates the presence of a local lesion, but does not yet say anything about its localization. To establish localization, it is necessary to qualify symptoms, identify the main neuropsychological factor and, based on it, determine possible localization. This procedure is called neuropsychological syndromic analysis of HMF disorders that occur with local brain lesions (Fig. 2.1
It is known that one area of ​​the brain can lead to disruption of a number of mental functions, that is, it is a common link in several functional systems. This means that when a certain area of ​​the brain is damaged, we can deal with a number of symptoms of disorders of various mental functions, with a symptom complex or syndrome.

Neuropsychological syndrome is a natural combination of symptoms that occurs when a particular area of ​​the brain is damaged. Is it possible to use the concepts of “symptom”, “syndrome” and the syndromic analysis procedure when analyzing the state of mental functions in children in the same context as in adults?
A positive answer to this question is possible if the basic principles of the morphological, neurophysiological organization and operation of functional systems in children and adults coincide. The main thing, in this case, should be the coincidence of the functions of the brain zones that are included in the functional systems. For example, in both a child and an adult, the left temporal region of the brain should be responsible for analyzing speech sounds. It is clear that in this case the capabilities of the functional systems of a child and an adult will be different due to different degrees of their formation and productivity. Is it possible in this case to say that the analysis of speech sounds, as it develops, will be carried out by another zone of the brain and only in the course of ontogenesis, at some later stages, this function will pass to temporal region, that is, there will be a change in the localization of the nervous mechanism responsible for phonemic analysis?
Here we should turn to the well-established statement based on the principle of dynamic localization of the HMF: the localization of the HMF changes in the process of ontogenesis and learning, exercise, that is, at different stages of ontogenesis, the mental function is based on different systems jointly working areas of the brain. For example, a child thinks by remembering (based on visual images), and an adult remembers by thinking (based on analysis and synthesis). In other words, a change in the structure of the mental process also implies a change in the localization of the components of the functional system that provides it.
Another statement seems more correct: it is not the localization of brain zones that changes, nor the system (as a multi-link morphological structure) that they form to ensure HMF, but during ontogenesis, the nature of connections between brain zones, system components, and the increasing or decreasing role of each of these components changes in ensuring higher mental functions.
This means that the “material” structure of a functional system as a set of its constituent brain zones can remain invariant in its basic, “skeletal” basis. All its changes associated with maturation and development occur due to internal rearrangements in the interaction of components necessary for the existence of this system, as well as due to the inclusion in the basic structure of the system of those “flexible” links that are determined by the individual situation of the child’s development.
Looking ahead a little, since subsequent chapters will provide arguments to support the position stated below, we can put forward a basic hypothesis about the localization of developing mental functions in childhood.

Modern anatomical, neurophysiological and psychophysiological data related to the problem of age-related maturation and development suggest that the general, rigid morphological architecture of functional systems, represented by integrative combinations of various brain structures and connections between them, takes shape at the time of birth of a child or in the early stages of ontogenesis.

Subsequently, gradual heterochronic morphological and functional maturation of the brain areas integrated into these systems occurs. At different age periods, intra- and intersystem restructuring occurs, during which there is a change in the hierarchy that exists between individual components within systems and systems. The basic structure of functional systems may also include new “flexible” links, if this is due to the characteristics of the child’s individual development situation.

This hypothesis allows us to talk about the possibility of syndromic analysis in childhood, although it presupposes the need to take into account certain specifics when using it.
How might this specificity manifest itself?
The first feature of such an analysis is that in clinical neuropsychology a symptom is considered as external manifestation disturbances in the functioning of mental function, a certain part of it. It is obvious that such use of this term is not always adequate if the work of emerging, not yet fully formed mental functions is assessed.
Mistakes that a child makes when performing tasks can be considered as symptoms indicating the dysfunction of a particular function. But such trouble may have two different reasons:

1) disruption of mental function;
2) or its lack of formation.

So, it is necessary to distinguish between symptoms associated with damage and symptoms associated with insufficient functional maturity
one or another part of the brain.
This means that, first of all, errors (considered as neuropsychological symptoms in terms of neuropsychology) should be correlated not with violations of one or another level of mental function, but with the child’s age-related productivity in the task being performed. Productivity in this case must correspond to the age period and may turn out to be different than that of an adult. Productivity here refers to the degree of compliance of the actions performed and their algorithm with the objective content of the activity.
Thus, to differentiate symptoms of damage and immaturity, it is necessary to compare the results of the child’s tasks with the results of an adult and with the results of the majority of children of the same age population.
A child's performance on tasks may be lower than that of adults, but be consistent with the results of other children in the same age population. This indicates that the degree of formation of one or another level of mental functions in a child has not yet reached the final level, but corresponds to age standards. Based on these results, it is possible to describe the syndrome of immaturity, which correlates with the immaturity of the corresponding brain structure. For example, the syndrome of unformed spatial link, manifested in the functions of perception, praxis, visual-constructive function, etc.
The coincidence of the results of an adult and a child can be assessed as the presence of complete formation of the corresponding link.
The child’s results when completing tasks may be lower compared to the results of other children in the same age population, which may indicate, taking into account additional data, damage to one or another part of the child’s mental functions. In this case, it is possible to describe a syndrome that correlates with damage to the corresponding brain structure.
In each of these situations, the localization of the unformed or damaged link, based on the hypothesis put forward, is determined by analogy with its localization in an adult, detected in neuropsychological examinations with local brain lesions.
The second feature of syndromic analysis, which should be taken into account when examining children, relates to a greater extent to differential neuropsychology, when the neuropsychological approach is implemented to identify individual characteristics of mental development. Neuropsychological syndromes, focused primarily on the symptoms of immaturity that are found in children at different age periods, should reflect the integrative work of the entire brain, each department of which makes a specific contribution to it. But the chronogenicity of the maturation of brain structures suggests that the degree of contribution of individual structures to this integration may vary.
This means that the examination can identify syndromes that include symptoms of immaturity of a number of different parts of mental functions (which indicates insufficient maturity of the corresponding brain structures). In this case, we are dealing with a number of syndromes correlated with various factors. The combination of these syndromes will characterize different degrees of morphofunctional maturity and mental development, as well as different localization brain areas associated with these syndromes. The factor composition and localization of such syndromes will be determined by the logic of morphofunctional maturation different zones age-specific brain. Differences in the degree of maturity of individual links at certain age periods will determine variant combinations of such symptoms and, accordingly, neuropsychological syndromes.
It can be assumed that in children of the norm group at different age periods, combinations of these syndromes will be certain character and thereby reflect the patterns of brain maturation and the formation of mental functional systems.
Such syndromes differ from local syndromes traditionally used in neuropsychology in their multifactorial nature and therefore cannot be considered in terms of traditional localization. In this case, issues related to the analysis of the degree of maturity of various brain zones can be resolved using the concept of distributed localization.
In this situation, we can talk about multifactorial metasyndromes, which naturally combine a number of syndromes that correlate with different neuropsychological factors and characterize the current specifics of development.
With the help of such metasyndromes, it is possible to assess the formation of certain mental functions associated with the maturity of the corresponding brain structures, to understand the patterns of the formation of mental functions and the maturation of the corresponding parts of the brain, as well as individual characteristics in their formation at different age periods.
The concept of “metasyndrome” can also be used when considering developmental disorders. Metasyndromes may be useful tool analysis of patterns of disturbances in mental processes in diffuse brain pathology, disorders of a systemic nature, as well as to describe developmental disorders in cases of damage to the developing brain.
Therefore, another feature of neuropsychological syndrome analysis associated with the assessment of development or developmental disorders is the need to assess multifactorial syndromes and their distributed localization.
The possibilities of syndromic analysis are not limited to just indicating possible disorders or the specifics of the formation of mental functions in ontogenesis. Syndromic analysis makes it possible to assess the qualitative originality of those neoplasms of mental development that characterize one or another form of pathology, abnormal or normal development.
Identification of symptoms associated with brain damage and symptoms associated with immaturity determines not only the specificity of syndromic analysis in childhood neuropsychology, but also different possibilities for its application.
One of these possibilities is associated with identifying the specifics of HMF impairment when a particular area of ​​the brain is damaged, that is, determining the contribution of one or another part of the brain to the course of mental processes in different age periods. In this case, syndromic analysis is aimed at identifying disorders of the HMF and is used within the framework of clinical neuropsychology of childhood.
Another task is related to the search for general and individual patterns in the formation of the structural and functional organization of the brain and HMF of a child at different age periods. In this case, syndromic analysis is associated with resolving issues related to normal development, developmental deviations and individual differences in the development of HMF and is resolved within the framework of differential neuropsychology of childhood.
In general, three main methodological procedures used in the neuropsychological study of children can be distinguished.

The foundation of modern Russian developmental psychology is formed by the fundamental ideas and system of basic concepts formulated by L. S. Vygotsky (1896-1934). In the 1920-1930s. he developed the foundations of the cultural and historical theory of mental development. Although Vygotsky did not manage to create a complete theory, the general understanding of mental development in childhood, contained in the scientist’s works, was later significantly developed, specified and clarified in the works of A.N. Leontyeva, A.R. Luria, A.V. Zaporozhets, D.B. Elkonina, L.I. Bozhovich, M.I. Lisina and other representatives of the Vygotsky school. The main provisions of the cultural-historical approach are set out in the works of Vygotsky: “The Problem of the Cultural Development of the Child” (1928), “ Instrumental method in psychology" (1930), "Tool and sign in the development of a child" (1930), "History of the development of higher mental functions" (1930-1931), in the scientist's most famous book "Thinking and Speech" (1933 -1934) and in a number of others.

Analyzing the causes of the crisis of psychology as a science in the first decades of the 20th century, L.S. Vygotsky discovered that all contemporary concepts of mental development implemented an approach that he called “biologizing” or “naturalistic.”

The biologization interpretation identifies and puts on a par the psychological development of an animal and the development of a child. Characterizing the traditional point of view on mental development (belonging to associative and behaviorist psychology), Vygotsky identifies three main points:
- study of higher mental functions from the side of their constituent natural processes;
- reduction of higher and complex processes to elementary ones;
- ignoring the specific features and patterns of cultural development of behavior.

He called this approach to the study of higher mental processes “atomistic,” pointing out its fundamental inadequacy. Criticizing the traditional approach, Vygotsky wrote that “the very concept of the development of higher mental functions is alien to child psychology,” that it “limites the concept of a child’s mental development to the biological development of elementary functions, which occurs in direct dependence on the maturation of the brain as a function of the organic maturation of the child.”

L.S. Vygotsky argued that a different, non-biological, understanding of the development of higher mental functions of a person is necessary. He didn't just point out the importance social environment for the development of the child, but sought to identify the specific mechanism of this influence.

Vygotsky distinguished lower, elementary mental functions (phase of natural development) and higher mental functions (phase of “cultural” development). The hypothesis put forward by Vygotsky offered a new solution to the problem of the relationship between mental functions - elementary and higher. The main difference between them is the level of arbitrariness, i.e. natural mental processes cannot be regulated by humans, but people can consciously control higher mental functions (HMF). Vygotsky came to the conclusion that conscious regulation is associated with the indirect nature of HMF. The most convincing model of indirect activity, characterizing the manifestation and implementation of higher mental functions, is the “situation of Buridan’s donkey.” This classic situation of uncertainty, or problematic situation (a choice between two equal opportunities), interests Vygotsky primarily from the point of view of the means that make it possible to transform (solve) the situation that has arisen. The lot cast by a person represents, according to Vygotsky, the means by which a person transforms and resolves a given situation. An additional connection arises between the influencing stimulus and a person’s reaction (both behavioral and mental) through a mediating link - a stimulus-means, or sign. Signs (or stimulus-means) 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. Unlike the stimulus of a means, which can be invented by a person himself (for example, a knot on a scarf or a stick instead of a thermometer), signs are not invented by children, but are acquired by them in communication with adults. 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 (rotation) of signs as a means of regulating mental activity. Interiorization is a fundamental law of the development of higher mental functions in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. This is Vygotsky’s hypothesis about the origin and nature of higher mental functions. 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 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.” For example, if we talk about voluntary attention as the highest mental function, then the sequence of stages of its formation is as follows: first, an adult in communication attracts and directs the child’s attention; Gradually, the child himself learns the pointing gesture and the word - a rotation and internalization of ways of organizing someone else’s and his own attention occurs. Likewise, speech: initially acting as an external means of communication between people, it goes through an intermediate stage (egocentric speech), begins to perform an intellectual function, and gradually becomes an internal, interiorized mental function. Thus, the sign appears first on the external plane, the plane of communication, and then passes into the internal plane, the plane of consciousness.

In those same years, problems of internalization were developed by the French sociological school. Some forms of social consciousness are grafted onto the initially existing and initially asocial individual consciousness from the outside (E. Durkheim) or elements of external social activity and social cooperation are introduced into it (P. Janet) - this is the idea of ​​the French psychological school. For Vygotsky, consciousness develops only in the process of interiorization - there is no initially asocial consciousness, either phylogenetically or ontogenetically. In the process of interiorization, human consciousness is formed, and such strictly human mental processes as logical thinking, will, and speech arise. The internalization of signs is the mechanism that shapes the psyche of children.

In the general concept of “development of higher mental functions,” Vygotsky includes two groups of phenomena that together form the process of “development higher forms child behavior":
- processes of mastering language, writing, counting, drawing as external means of cultural development and thinking,
- processes of development of special higher mental functions (voluntary attention, logical memory, concepts, etc.).

Distinctive features of higher mental functions: indirectness, arbitrariness, systematicity; are formed intravitally; are formed by internalizing samples.

Highlighting two historical stages development of mankind, biological (evolutionary) and cultural (historical) development, Vygotsky believes that it is important to distinguish and uniquely contrast them as two types of development in ontogenesis. 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. As emphasized by A.M. Matyushkin, for Vygotsky, “the main problem and subject of research is to understand the “interweaving” of two types of processes, to trace their specific uniqueness at each stage of development, to reveal the age-related and individually typological picture of development at each stage and in relation to each higher mental functions. The difficulty for Vygotsky is not to trace and understand a single process of cultural development, but to understand its features in a complex interweaving of processes.”

Modern research has significantly expanded and deepened the general understanding of the patterns, essence, and structure of HMF. Vygotsky and his followers identified four main features of HMF: complexity, sociality, mediation and arbitrariness.

Complexity is manifested in the fact that HMFs are diverse in terms of the characteristics of formation and development, in the structure and composition of conventionally identified parts and connections between them. In addition, complexity is determined by the specific relationship of some results of human phylogenetic development (preserved in modern culture) with the results of ontogenetic development at the level of mental processes. Over the course of historical development, man has created unique sign systems that make it possible to comprehend, interpret and comprehend the essence of the phenomena of the surrounding world. These systems continue to develop and improve. Their change in a certain way affects the dynamics of the human mental processes themselves. Thus, a dialectic of mental processes, sign systems, and phenomena of the surrounding world is carried out.

Sociality HPFs are determined by their origin. They can only develop through the process of people interacting with each other. The main source of occurrence is internalization, i.e. transfer (“rotation”) of social forms of behavior to the internal plane. Interiorization is carried out during the formation and development of external and internal relationships of the individual. Here, HMFs go through two stages of development. First, as a form of interaction between people (interpsychic stage). Then as an internal phenomenon (intrapsychic stage). Teaching a child to speak and think - shining example process of interiorization.

Mediocrity HMF is visible in the way they function. The development of the ability for symbolic activity and mastery of a sign is the main component of mediation. A word, image, number and other possible identifying signs of a phenomenon (for example, a hieroglyph as the unity of word and image) determine the semantic perspective of comprehending the essence at the level of unity of abstraction and concretization. In this sense, thinking as the operation of symbols, behind which there are ideas and concepts, or creative imagination as the operation of images, are corresponding examples of the functioning of the HMF. In the process of functioning of the HMF, cognitive and emotional-volitional components of awareness are born: meanings and meanings.

Arbitrary VPFs are based on the method of implementation. Thanks to mediation, a person is able to realize his functions and carry out activities in a certain direction, anticipating a possible result, analyzing his experience, adjusting behavior and activities. The arbitrariness of the HMF is also determined by the fact that the individual is able to act purposefully, overcoming obstacles and making appropriate efforts. The conscious pursuit of a goal and the application of effort determines the conscious regulation of activity and behavior. We can say that the idea of ​​HMF comes from the idea of ​​the formation and development of volitional mechanisms in a person.

In general, modern scientific ideas about the phenomenon of HMF provide the basis for understanding personality development in the following directions. Firstly, social development human as the formation of a system of relationships with people and phenomena of the surrounding reality. Secondly, intellectual development as the dynamics of mental new formations associated with the assimilation, processing and functioning of various sign systems. Third, creative development as the formation of the ability to create something new, non-standard, original and original. Fourthly, volitional development as the ability for purposeful and effective actions; the ability to overcome obstacles based on self-regulation and personal stability. At the same time, social development is aimed at successful adaptation; intellectual - to understand the essence of phenomena in the surrounding world; creative - to transform the phenomena of reality and self-actualization of the individual; volitional - to mobilize human and personal resources to achieve the goal.

Higher mental functions develop only in the process of education and socialization. They cannot arise in a feral person (feral people, according to Linnaeus’ definition, are individuals who grew up in isolation from people and were brought up in a community of animals). Such people lack the basic qualities of HMF: complexity, sociality, indirectness and arbitrariness. Of course, we can find some elements of these qualities in the behavior of animals. For example, the conditioning of actions trained dog can be correlated with the quality of mediation of functions. However, higher mental functions develop only in connection with the formation interiorized sign systems, and not at the level of reflex activity, even if it acquires a conditioned character. Thus, one of the most important qualities of the HMF is indirectness, associated with the general intellectual development of a person and the mastery of numerous sign systems.

The question of the internalization of sign systems is the most complex and poorly developed in modern cognitive psychology. It is in the context of this direction that the main problems of human intellectual development in the process of training and education are explored. Following the identification of the structural blocks of cognitive activity by R. Atkinson, the development of the cognitive theory of personality by J. Kelly, research experimental study Regarding the private processes and functions of J. Piaget’s mental activity, the creation of concepts of the cognitive structure of personality associated with the development of intelligence in the learning process, critical information appears due to the lack of conceptual unity of numerous theories. IN Lately we can find a fair amount of skepticism about cognitive research. There are many reasons for this. One of them, in our opinion, is disappointment in the possibilities of social adaptability of intellectual activity and the lack of accurate diagnosis of its level. The results of intelligence research have shown that its high level is very weakly related to a person’s success in society. Such conclusions are quite obvious if we proceed from the theory of HMF. After all, only a sufficiently high level of development of the intellectual sphere of the individual in combination with at least high level development of the emotional-volitional sphere allows us to talk about the possibility of social success. At the same time, there must be a certain balance between emotional, volitional and intellectual development. Violation of this balance can lead to the development of deviant behavior and social maladjustment.

Thus, it can be stated that interest in the problems of human intellectual development in the process of training and education is being replaced by interest in general problems of socialization and adaptation of the individual. Modern cognitive psychology has focused on the study of general mental processes: memory, attention, imagination, perception, thinking, etc. Most successful learning and education is associated with their development. However, today it is quite clear that only in elementary school such close attention to mental processes is fully justified, since it is determined by the age-related sensitivity of younger schoolchildren. The development of the cognitive sphere in middle and high school students should be associated with the process of understanding the essence of phenomena in the surrounding world, since age is the most sensitive for the formation of social and gender-role identification.

It is very important to turn to the processes of understanding as comprehension of the essence of the surrounding world. If we analyze the majority educational programs in a modern school, it can be noted that their main advantages are associated with the selection of content and features of the interpretation of scientific information. Behind last years New subjects have appeared at the school, the range of additional educational services has expanded, and new areas of study are being developed. Newly created textbooks and teaching aids amaze us with the possibilities of using scientific data in the study of certain subjects at school. However, the developmental possibilities of the content of the material remain beyond the attention of the authors. It is assumed that these opportunities can be implemented at the level of pedagogical methods and technologies. And in content educational material Developmental learning opportunities are simply not used. Students are offered an adapted quintessence of scientific knowledge. But is it possible use the content of educational material to develop the cognitive sphere of the individual?

The origins of this idea can be found in the works domestic psychologist L.B. Itelson ("Lectures on modern problems psychology of learning", Vladimir, 1972), as well as in numerous modern developments theory of argumentation A.A. Ivina. The essence of their idea is that when learning, the content of information (which, with assimilation, turns into knowledge) should be selected in such a way that, if possible, all human intellectual functions are developed.

The main intellectual functions are identified, which (with a certain degree of convention) can be combined into five dichotomous pairs according to the principle of subordination:

• · analysis - synthesis;
• · abstraction - concretization;
• · comparison - comparison;
• · generalization - classification;
• · encoding - decoding (decoding).

All these functions are interconnected and interdependent. Together, they determine the processes of cognition and comprehension of the essence of phenomena. It is obvious that modern training is aimed primarily at the development of functions such as specification, comparison, and coding. Concretization is determined by a person’s ability to abstract from the essence of a phenomenon and focus on particulars. For example, working with signs or facts when studying any phenomena of reality contributes to the development of this function. Comparison as an intellectual function is developed in students in almost all subjects at school, since many tasks and questions on topics are given for comparison. And finally, coding, which is associated with speech development, develops from childhood. Coding includes all intellectual operations that accompany the translation of images and representations into words, sentences, and text. Each person has his own coding characteristics, which are manifested in the style, meaning formation of speech and the general structure of language as a sign system.

As for analysis, synthesis, abstraction, comparison, generalization, classification and decoding, there are very few tasks for the development of these functions in modern textbooks, and the content of the educational material itself does not contribute to their formation.

Indeed, many functions are extremely difficult to form due to their essential specificity. So, for example, the possibilities for developing the comparison function are limited, because this function presupposes the correlation of things not according to an essential characteristic (as in comparison), but according to the belonging of objects to a different class of phenomena. On the other hand, this is absolutely necessary for preparing children to analyze the realities of modern life. Here they will often have to make decisions and choices based on the correlation of various phenomena. A good example selection of content for the development of the comparison function is L. Carroll's fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". Recently, interesting teaching aids for children, where the possibilities of implementing this approach are presented. However, there are still very few such publications, and many teachers do not quite know how to use them. At the same time, it is absolutely necessary to deal with the problems of developing the intellectual functions of children, since a person’s ability to correctly comprehend the essence of the phenomena of the surrounding world depends on this.

Higher mental functions (HMF)

Now let's return to the line of child development that is associated with the formation of higher mental functions. Why did L. S. Vygotsky turn to a new concept for psychology - “higher mental functions”? After all, even before him, psychologists spoke about the development of perception and thinking, attention and memory, mental development generally. L. S. Vygotsky, apparently, was the first to understand that the development of a child’s psyche, understood as quantitative growth in various parameters, cannot ensure the successful activity of a person transitioning to life in the world complex mechanisms and technology. A simple increase in memory capacity cannot ensure success in school and university education, and an increase in attention span cannot ensure successful, error-free control of complex devices and mechanisms. L. S. Vygotsky draws attention to the fact that in animals the development of behavior and psyche in evolution is accompanied by the development of their brain. In human history, we observe enormous changes in behavior and psyche, but no morphological changes in the brain occurred during this time. How can these changes in human activity and psyche be explained?

Structure of the HMF: indirectness, consistency

Based on the works of K. Marx, L. S. Vygotsky noted that the development of labor activity is explained by the complication of the tools with which a person is armed in work. The use of tools allows, without changing the brain mechanisms and executive bodies, carry out increasingly complex activities, forming new functional systems. L. S. Vygotsky developed the hypothesis that the human psyche is also armed in history. At first these were real objects of the external world, then specially made changes in the environment or man-made devices used as signs of some events. The most universal sign, according to L. S. Vygotsky, was the word, human language.

If earlier the process, for example, of memorization, was built like any natural process through direct imprinting A ↔ IN and reproduction, then the introduction of an object-sign into this process changes the process of imprinting-reproduction (Fig. 8.3).

Rice. 8.3.

A– memorized object; IN - subject of memorization; X– auxiliary means

Now the memorization process is built as a memorization action: an event A matches the sign X and playback A carried out through a sign X, which is always available to a person. This means that memorization has become arbitrary and from a natural mental process has become a human action with operations of comparing events in the environment and signs, storage and, if necessary, production of signs, various actions to create the desired sign (notch for memory, knot for memory, recording on paper or in computer memory). Thanks to this, the psyche, as L. S. Vygotsky writes, goes beyond the brain. In fact, the psyche as a subjective experience, of course, does not go anywhere, but the process of memorization from the natural, natural becomes almost the same action as the production of some object, and is no longer confined within the brain. A new functional system is formed with internal (in terms of consciousness) and external, including motor, links, the result of which is memorization and reproduction according to external or internal requirements. The brain process of imprinting does not disappear, but it is now included in the work of a new system using a “tool”, a means of remembering.

Above natural or, as L. S. Vygotsky calls them, “natural mental processes,” a voluntary human action is built on, aimed at achieving the same result as in the natural mental process. This is how higher mental functions (HMF) arise - voluntary, mediated by signs (tools), memorization, perception, attention, thinking, etc. (Fig. 8.4).

Rice. 8.4.

But the restructuring of natural mental processes is not limited to mediation. It has already been said that new functional systems are being formed, including various external and internal processes, mediated by signs, and all natural mental processes begin to work together in this new system. For example, memorization and reproduction begin to be carried out through the generalization and classification of events, the establishment of their connections, the identification of specific features, connection with facts known and firmly known to man, etc.

Therefore, higher mental functions become voluntary, conscious, mediated and systemically constructed. All natural mental processes begin to work together when solving a problem, providing their contribution to this joint work. The systematic nature of the VPF allows replacement operations to be carried out if any link of this system is broken.

For example, when a small area of ​​the parietotemporo-occipital cortex of the left hemisphere is damaged, a person ceases to recognize the letters of the alphabet. In this case, you can connect the intact motor memory of writing letters. If the patient is asked to trace the letters with his finger, then, to his surprise, he recognizes all the letters and can now read the text by tracing each letter with his finger. Such a patient can be taught to trace the letters with the fingers of the hand hidden in his pocket, and then others will not notice the defect in reading the text.

In the above example, the ability to visually recognize letters, impaired due to illness, was replaced by motor recognition, and the system continues to work generally successfully. L. S. Vygotsky noticed that new human social skills - speech, reading, writing - are built according to the same rules of operation of functional systems, which allowed him to classify them as HMF. Later, Vygotsky’s colleague, A.R. Luria, showed that the brain mechanisms of higher mental functions are built on the principle of a system, when the same area of ​​the cerebral cortex is included in various functional systems that provide human skills.

The holistic nature of the human psyche

Isolation of the HMF made it possible to solve another problem in understanding the psyche. There is a widespread opinion about the existence of such independent and self-sufficient mental processes as perception, memory, attention, thinking, etc. This functionalist approach is reflected in almost all textbooks on general psychology. If we accept the idea of ​​HMF, then the position about individual processes will have to be rejected, because the structure of all higher mental functions is the same (all natural mental processes participate in them). In this case, the human psyche should be understood as a single whole, and only depending on the task being solved at the moment, it is necessary to distinguish the HMF as perception, memory or attention. If a conscious sensory image is being constructed, then at the moment the human psyche works as perception; if the task is to remember and reproduce the necessary information, then the work of the psyche, organized according to the type of HMF, manifests itself as memory; if a person solves constructive or cognitive problems, then this manifests itself as thinking (Fig. 8.5).

In the center of the circle in Fig. 8.5 shows the connections between natural mental functions (perception, attention, memory, thinking, etc.). That is, in fact, in solving any problems, all natural mental processes are involved, working together in a single human mental system, and therefore we can understand the human psyche as a single entity capable of solving various problems.

Rice. 8.5.

Higher mental functions are social in origin. They are social because the reason for their formation in a person is in the requirements of society, and the method of formation is the joint and shared activity of an adult and a child. L. S. Vygotsky wrote that HMFs arise twice - first as a joint collective interpsychic activity, and then as an individual way of behavior of the child. Social forms of behavior become ways of individual behavior or, in other words, higher mental functions. It has already been mentioned that this process was also described in the concept of “interiorization” as a transition from outside to inside. It was also noted that this transition should be understood as the child’s construction of the same functional systems that adults have—systems that enable the child to carry out his first social actions.

Since higher mental functions are formed only in the child’s own adequate activity, they turn out to be arbitrary from the very beginning.

One of the directions of development of the VPF is the transition from external means of mediation to internal ones.

The studies of A. N. Leontiev (a colleague of L. S. Vygotsky) showed the development of children’s ability to use external and internal means memorization: younger children do not know how to use any means, middle-aged children use external object means (cards) well, adults use both external and internal means well.