Vygotsky and his study on the use of

Memory Aids

Presented by Sara Schaner & Mary Fritz

Background InfoNovember 5th, 1896 born in Orsha, Belorussia

Was raised in the city of Gomel

“Little Professor”

1917 – Graduated from Moscow University

1917 - 1924 – Taught at two schools, diagnosed with a disease

1924 – Phenomenal lecture & Marriage to Rosa Smekhova

June 10th, 1934 – Died at the age of 38

1936 - 1958 – Works banned

Orsha

Gomel

Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Development

Stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition

Social learning tends to precede development

He argued that, “learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological functions” (The Educational Theory of Lev Vygotsky, 2010))

Vygotsky developed a socio- cultural approach to cognitive development.

Social Influence on Cognitive Development

Vygotsky believed that young children are curious and actively involved in their own learning and the discovery and development of new schema, placing emphasis on social contributions to the process of development

Important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a skillful tutor

The tutor may model behaviors and/ or provide verbal instructions for the child. He refers to this as co-operative or collaborative dialogue.

The child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provided by the tutor then internalizes the info using it to guide or regulate their own performance.

Cultural Sign System and Psychological Tools

Vygotsky refers to tools of intellectual adaptation that allow children to use the basic mental functions more effectively/adaptively, and these are culturally determined.

He proposed that people create “psychological tools” to master their own behavior

He refers to psychological tools: Speech

Writing

Numbering System

Memory and memory aids

Through interaction within the socio-cultural environment, these are developed into more sophisticated and effective mental processes/strategies which he refers to as Higher Mental Functions

Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with the basic materials/abilities for intellectual development.

Speech

The most important sign system is speech.

It frees our thought and attention from the immediate situation.

It enables us to reflect on the past and plan for the future.

Speech separate us from other species

Two types of speech Egocentric speech is talking to themselves aloud- prevalent to 4-7                           

Inner-speech is a kind of silent dialogue we have with ourselves 

Writing and Numbering System

Writing enables people to keep permanent record of information. 

Numbering systems enables to quantify objects by sight alone.

Two Principles of Vygotsky’s Theory

Two main principles of Vygotsky’s work: More Knowledgeable Other

Zone of Proximal Development

More Knowledgeable Other

MKO: refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respects to a particular task, process, or concept.

Vygotsky notes that the older adult or teacher is not always the more knowledgeable one.

Zone of Proximal Development

ZPD is the concept that skills can be too difficult for a child to master on his/her own, but can be done with guidance and encouragement from a more knowledgeable person.

Related to the concept of MKO. This relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner.

Vygotsky sees the ZDP as the area where the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given- allowing the child to develop skills they will then use on their own- developing higher mental functions

Vygotsky also views interaction with peers as an effective way of developing skills and strategies

Memory

Growth of the mind is so strongly influenced by the cultural line of development in the sign systems the culture provides Memory aids: Psychological tools

Through his experiments in this field, he explored children thinking led to metacognition- the awareness people have of their own thought process aka metamemory  

Vygotsky’s Works

Thought and Language

Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes

Educational Psychology

Our Research

We went to North Hills Preparatory School for our observations and experiment.

We were researching Vygotsky’s theory on Memory and how children used memory aids to help them recall

We paid attention to the use of inner-speech and ego-centric speech

We paid attention to their ages and what Vygotsky says is prevalent in specific age-groups

We paid attention to how each child organized the aids

Hypothesis

We hypothesize that the children will organize the memory aids in four groups. Each group will have four pictures. Animal, baby animal, food, and resting place.

We hypothesize that the children will use ego-centric speech and inner speech to help them remember.

The older children will remember more than the younger children.

Child One

3rd Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 8

Amount of Time = 2:50

How Many Recalled = 16

put things into pairs: milk and kitten

puppy and dog house

cat and cat castle

dog and bones

horse, foal, hay

barn, chicken coop, seeds, chick, chicken

Child Two

2nd Grade

Gender = Female

Age = 8

Amount of Time = 2:56

How Many Recalled = 13

Put everything into one line across the table

Barn, coop, seeds, hen, chick, doghouse, puppy, bone, dog, cat, cat castle, milk, kitten, horse, foal, hay

Child Three

1st Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 7

Amount of Time = 0:40

How Many Recalled = 4

Just laid all the cards out randomly on the table.

Child Four

4th Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 10

Amount of Time = 1:08

How Many Recalled = 10

Put the cards into the order that we hypothesized

Horse, foal, hay, barn

Dog, puppy, bones, doghouse

Cat, kitten, cat-castle, milk

Chicken, hen, seeds, chicken coop

Child Five

1st Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 6

Amount of Time = 1:04

How Many Recalled = 0

Did nothing.

Child Six

2nd Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 8

Amount of Time = 1:38

How Many Recalled = 11

Separated all the animals from all of the objects.

Dog, Puppy, Cat, Kitten, Horse, Foal, Chicken, Chick

Hay, Seeds, Bones, Milk, Barn, Cat-Castle, Doghouse, Chicken Coop

Child Seven

1st Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 6

Amount of Time = 0:42

How Many Recalled = 6

Took the pile of cards into his hands and then would look at each card then flip the card upside onto the table

Child Eight

Kindergarten

Gender = Male

Age = 5

Amount of Time = 1:37

How Many Recalled = 13

Horse, Barn, Foal, Hay

Dog, Bones, Puppy

Cat and Kitten

Chick, Chicken, Chicken Coop

Milk and Seeds

Cat-Castle and Doghouse

Child Nine

2nd Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 8

Amount of Time = 1:25

How Many Recalled = 14

Cat, Kitten, Cat-Castle

Horse, Hay, Foal, Barn

Chicken, Chick, Chicken Coop

Bone, Doghouse, Milk, Seeds, Puppy, Dog

Child Ten

2nd Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 8

Amount of Time = 1:14

How Many Recalled = 8

Put all the animals with their home

Bone with the dog group

Hay with the horse group

milk and seeds

Child Eleven

2nd Grade

Gender = Male

Age = 7

Amount of Time = 0:54

How Many Recalled = 11

Horse and Foal

Barn and Hay

Chicken and Chick

Seeds and Bone

Cat and Kitten

Doghouse and Chicken Coop

Dog and Puppy

Milk

Cat-Castle

Child Twelve

4th Grade

Gender = Female

Age = 9

Amount of Time = 0:47

How Many Recalled = 15

Put all the animals with their food

All the living places in another group

Results

1) Only one child used the grouping method that we hypothesized

Some of the groups were consistent

Most of the children who recalled majority of the pictures, organized the memory aids into a consistent group

2) Evidence of inner-speech and ego-centric speech.

3) Our data shows that this hypothesis was false.

BK &LV