The concept of higher mental functions
Definition 1
Higher mental functions are complex mental processes that are formed during life, have a social origin, are mediated in their psychological structure and have a voluntary nature of implementation.
One of the first researchers to introduce the concept of higher mental functions into Russian psychological science was Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. He created a classification of higher mental functions, which includes the following elements:
- logical memory;
- goal-oriented thinking;
- creative imagination;
- voluntary actions;
- speech, writing, counting;
- movements and perceptual processes.
One of the most important characteristics of higher mental functions is their mediation by various “psychological tools” - certain sign systems that are products of the development of human society over many centuries. The leading role among the so-called “psychological tools” is played by speech, the development process of which directly affects the formation of higher mental functions of a person.
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The essence of higher mental functions
It is believed that higher mental functions (HMF) owe their appearance to natural mental functions.
Each mental process occurs at two levels - “natural” and “higher”: unconscious - conscious, not mediated by signs - mediated by signs, involuntary - voluntary, biological - cultural, etc. The distinction between higher and lower mental functions has methodological significance, since it determines the heterogeneity (heterogeneity) of the psyche, and characterizes the mental process itself in terms of qualitative changes. The concept of higher mental functions characterizes specific processes occurring in the human psyche. These include speech, thinking, memory, perception. The concept of HMF was first defined in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, a German physician, specialist in human physiology and experimental psychology.
In Russia, the founder of the theory of higher mental functions is considered to be the psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygodsky, his followers in this direction were the following researchers: neuropsychologist Luria A.R., psychologists Leontiev A.N., Zaporozhets A.V., Elkonin D.B. and Galperin P.Ya., called the “Vygodsky circle”. These researchers gave a broader explanation of the concept of HMF.
The structure of higher mental functions.
According to the teachings of L. S. Vygotsky, the word is the very sign, the “psychological tool”, thanks to which the process of building human consciousness occurs.
The word (sign) plays a vital role in the structure of higher mental functions. It is the main means of mediation between acts of activity performed by a person.
Higher mental functions are a hierarchically structured system with strict subordination of its component parts. It should be noted that the system of higher mental functions is not static; it changes and develops throughout a person’s life. These are both internal changes in the parts of which it consists, and changes in the relationships between them.
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.
Distinctive properties of higher mental functions
The following properties of the VPF can be distinguished:
- arbitrariness, this property is characterized by a person’s independent control of his mental functions, setting goals and objectives, with their subsequent solution. Higher mental functions are arbitrary in the manner of their implementation. It is thanks to this property that a person has the ability to understand his functions and carry out activities in accordance with set goals and in a certain direction with anticipation of a possible result. In addition to a kind of planning of activities, a person is also capable of analyzing his own experience and correcting behavior and activities based on monitoring. Thanks to the property of voluntariness, a person is capable of purposeful activity with overcoming possible obstacles and applying the necessary efforts.
- awareness of higher mental functions, this property is closely related to voluntariness and is its complement;
- mediation of higher mental functions, the main components of which are the ability for symbolic activity and actions with symbols and signs. All possible identifying signs of phenomena (word, image, number, etc.) determine the semantic perspective of comprehending the essence at the level of unity of abstraction and concretization. In this vein, the thinking process is a vivid example of the process of operating with symbols, and the creative imagination is an example of operating with images. In the process of functioning of higher mental functions, the main cognitive and emotional-volitional parts of awareness are formed: the meanings and meanings of images and symbols;
- the sociality of higher mental functions, which is determined by their origin. This property receives its development during the interaction of people with each other. The source of their emergence is the process of internalization or transfer of accepted social forms of behavior to the internal plane;
- systematicity of higher mental functions.
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Isolation of the concept of vpf
In the 1920s and 30s, Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory was formed under the influence of Marxist philosophy on the decisive role of tool labor in the process of anthropogenesis. Vygotsky continued to develop the idea of the connection between instrumental and sign (speech) activity.
A distinctive feature of man is his ability to transform the environment with means accumulated and developed within the framework of cultural tradition. Cultural experience is preserved and transmitted from generation to generation not only in the form of manufactured tools, but mainly through symbolic speech that records the accumulated experience.
If the external environment was transformed with the help of material tools, a person’s own psyche was also mastered with the help of tools, only mental ones - signs. A sign not only replaces a specific object or action, but also performs the function of generalization, forming concepts. The world, thus, seems to bifurcate into the material and the “designated” in consciousness, which opens the way for thinking as “extra-practical” knowledge.
Studying the problems of personality development, L.S. Vygotsky identified human mental functions, which are formed in specific conditions of socialization and have some special characteristics. He defined these functions as the highest. In general, he identified two levels of mental processes: natural and higher. If natural functions are given to the individual as a natural being and are realized in a spontaneous response, then higher mental functions can be developed only in the process of ontogenesis during social interaction.
Features of the emergence and development of higher mental functions
Higher functions have a key difference from innate, unmediated lower mental functions. They are formed only in social conditions, mediated, arbitrarily controlled and integrated into a system.
The environment and society around act as the main source of development for higher mental functions. L.S. Vygotsky emphasized that higher mental functions originate in childhood, as a form of collective behavior of the child and interaction with people around him (parents, educators, immediate environment) and in the process of development of the child’s personality become individual functions of the child himself. An example is speech, which is the main means of communication between people. Initially, the child’s speech performs its direct function of transmitting information to another person, and only over time does it move to the internal plane and perform an intellectual function.
Speech as the basic mental concept of its properties and functions
Tatiana Birulina
Speech as the basic mental concept of its properties and functions
Speech as a basic mental concept , its properties and functions
Speech between people using language constructs, the creation of which contains certain rules.
It should be noted that this concept is studied in the context of several disciplines, so there is no clearly formulated and final interpretation of it. Linguists interpret this word more narrowly: speech is a person’s knowledge and ability to use natural language. In general psychology, speech is a way of expressing and communicating to other people one’s internal, psychological states , thoughts and feelings. Speech also includes non-verbal means of communication: gestures, facial expressions, pantomime and other various means of exchanging information.
Speech is an integral element of human activity. Thanks to speech, a person learns about the world around him, shares his experience and knowledge with other people, both his own and subsequent generations. It is speech determines the mechanism for the development of thinking.
According to I.P. Pavlov, speech is a distinctive feature of human thinking, since it provides an opportunity to escape from reality and generalization.
Speaking (both oral and written)
has a number of characteristic features, including:
1) content, which consists in the number of thoughts, images and feelings expressed in speech, their significance and correspondence to reality;
2) clarity , achieved by syntactically correct construction of sentences, using pauses and logical stress when necessary to highlight words;
3) expressiveness - emotional richness, brightness, energy of speech, variety and richness of linguistic means;
4) effectiveness - the influence of speech on the behavior and beliefs of other people, their thoughts, feelings and will.
Forms of speech are “standard methods of structural and semantic organization of speech utterances based on the corresponding use of linguistic means of constructing speech messages.”
In the general structure of speech activity, there are three forms: external oral, external written and internal speech .
It should be noted that in general psychology and special pedagogy forms of speech are classified differently, depending on the criteria considered.
Based on the nature of the means of expressing thoughts used, oral speech (implemented by sound means), kinetic speech (includes expressive gestures and postures, most often used in conjunction with other forms of speech) and written speech are .
external speech differs (audible, articulated, hidden speech ( “to oneself”
, inner
speech (collapsed and predominantly predicative)
.
According to the degree of activity of the individual in planning and producing speech activity, speech is divided into active (planned completely independently), reactive (the interlocutor-partner partially and indirectly takes part in planning) and automated (with a complete absence of planning)
.
Researchers have identified several main functions performed by speech .
1. Communicative - the main function of speech , manifested in the transfer of information from one person to another or a group of people. There is an exchange of words that are perceived as separate concepts containing certain knowledge.
This function implies that people use speech in various types of joint activities as an organizing tool.
The communicative function of speech is divided into two subfunctions : messages, when a person expresses his opinion on any problem or characterizes his attitude towards any subject, and incentives to action, the effectiveness of which depends on the emotional expressiveness of speech.
2. The regulatory function of speech (was identified by L. S. Vygotsky and studied by A. R. Luria and other psychologists ) is realized in conscious forms mental activity - the so-called higher mental functions , which are voluntary. This function is manifested in the fact that people use speech to regulate the behavior of other people, as well as to master their own behavior, applying the same stimulus-signs to it. It is thanks to inner speech that a person is able to master his voluntary actions.
3. The programming function of speech consists in “constructing semantic schemes of a speech utterance, grammatical structures of sentences, in the transition from an idea to an external, detailed utterance. is based on internal programming, carried out using internal speech. As clinical data show, it is necessary not only for speech expression, but also for constructing a wide variety of movements and actions.”
Speech is closely integrated with all human mental processes ; it is language in action.
