The Development of Structures Through Interaction

Abstract

Vygotsky asserts that the internalization of socially rooted and historically developed activities is the feature distinguishing between human and subhuman psychology¹. Piaget claims that the development of knowledge can only be understood through appreciating the history of structural changes deriving from experience². Lewin argues that a central task for the cognitive sciences is going beyond the search for statistical norms of behavior to the detailed consideration of particular cases of individuals interacting with their milieu³. I have studied the learning of one child in breadth and in detail through a period of six months and more to trace the development of her cognitive structures. [203] The general objective of THIS effort is to use detail of THAT study to address some of the cited themes in a more computational fashion than was attempted in [203]. Some progress has been made to date, reported in “Learning Concrete Strategies Through Interaction” and “The Internalization of External Processes”⁴.