The Role of Tools (Objects)

1
The Role of Tools (Objects) Symbols (Signs)
in Development
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what are tools?

• Vygotsky defined the role of tools as oriented
  outward, toward the transformation of the
  physical and social reality.

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tools behavior

• Inclusion of a tool in the process of behavior
• introduces several new functions connected with
  the use of the given tool and its control
• abolishes and makes unnecessary several natural
  processes, whose work is accomplished by the
  tool
• alters the course and individual features (the
  intensity, duration, sequence, etc.) of all the
  mental processes that enter into the composition
  of the instrumental act, replacing some functions
  with others.(i.e. it recreates and reorganizes
  the whole structure of behavior just as a
  technical tool recreates the whole structure of
  labor operations)

Vygotsky (1982, p.137)
4
what are signs/symbols?

• Vygotsky defined the role of signs/symbols as
  oriented inward toward the self-regulation of
  conduct itself.

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examples of signs

• language
• various systems for counting
• mnemonic techniques
• algebraic symbol systems
• works of art

• writing
• schemes
• diagrams
• maps and mechanical drawings
• all kinds of conventional signs

Vygotsky (p.137)
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Language is a sign is also considered
psychological tool

• Language is one of the key tools created by
  humankind for the organization of thinking.
• Language bears concepts that belong to experience
  and to the knowledge of human kind.

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mediation

• The essence of human behavior resides in its
  mediation by tools and signs.

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when signs and tools converge
can you hand me the pliers? The beginnings of
practical intelligence in the child as well as
the actions of the chimpanzee, are independent of
speech. However.... the most significant moments
in the course of intellectual development, which
gives birth to the purely human forms of
practical and abstract intelligence, occurs when
speech and practical activity, two previously
completely independent lines of development,
converge.
Vygotsky M in S pg. 21, 24
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how are external signs internalized?

• the pointing example
• initially gesture is nothing more than an
  unsuccessful attempt to grasp something
• child attempts to grasp something beyond his or
  her reach, hands stretched towards the object
• when coming to the childs aid, an adult realizes
  that the childs movement in indicates something
• the childs unsuccessful attempt engenders a
  reaction, not from the object but from another
  person
• the primary meaning of the unsuccessful grasping
  movement is established by others
• when the child links the unsuccessful grasping
  movement to the objective world

??
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steps to internalization

• An operation that initially represents an
  external activity is reconstructed and begins to
  occur internally.
• An interpersonal process is transformed into an
  intrapersonal one.
• The transformation is the result of a long series
  of developmental events.

Vygotsky M in S, pg. 57
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so what does language buy us?
how kids beat apes....
Independence from the structure of the concrete,
visual situation use language to formulate plans
and utilize signs not in the physical
environment Practical operations become much less
impulsive and spontaneous Facilitates the childs
own effective manipulation of objects, and also
controls the childs own behavior
pg. 26
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using a stick with speech
egocentic speech as a psychological

tool for problem solving
Stands on a stool, quietly looking, feeling along
a shelf with stick. On the stool. Glances at
experimenter. Puts stick in other hand. Is that
really the candy? Hesitates. I can get it from
that other stool, stand and get it. Gets second
stool. No, that doesnt get it. I could use the
stick. Takes stick, knocks at the candy. It
will move now. Knocks candy. It moved, I
couldnt get it with the stool, but the, but the
stick worked.
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activity in a world of signs tools

• We live in a universe of signs our conduct is
  determined not by the objects themselves but by
  the signs attached to the objects.
• During different situations of life, we
  incorporate auxiliary stimuli which break the
  immediacy of the stimulus-response formula.
• We attach meanings to the objects around us.
• Signs restructure the consciousness of humans and
  influence the consciousness of others.

14
Meanwhile in Switzerland...

• Piaget is really misunderstood because most
  people dont read his later work (look how he is
  laughing at us!).

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Object Concept

• According to Piaget an Object is something that
  the individual conceives of as having a reality
  of its own, and as extending beyond his immediate
  perception.

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Pebbles!!

• Knowledge is abstracted from actions, from the
  coordination of actions, and not from objects
• He calls this knowledge logical mathematical
  knowledge, not physical knowledge.
• Physical Knowledge referes to the phyical
  property of an object, e.g. red strawberries,
  heavier ball etc.

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Language
guten Morgen buonas díaz Bonjour buona
mattina bom dia

• Language follows object use and manipulation
  since verbal skills develop after sensorimotor
  skills.
• In the course of intellectual development of any
  individual, logical mathematical structures exist
  before the appearance of language.

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Activity

• Children, especially young ones, learn best from
  concrete activities
• The child must begin by acting on objects, that
  is, manipulating them
• Senorimotor schemes can become internalized in
  the form of thought
• Manipulation of things is a prerequisite for
  higher, verbal understanding.
• Disjuncture- natural versus teacher imposed
  activities

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Some Comments by Piaget

• I think that human knowledge is essentially
  active.
• To know is to transform reality in order to
  understand how a certain state is brought about.
• An operation is an action that can be
  internalized.

20
discuss...

• Vygotsky suggested, in the early stages children
  think the way they perceive and remember in
  subsequent ones they perceive and remember the
  way they think.

21
discuss...

• The knot made in a handkerchief
  to remember

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Hominid versus human
discuss...

• At the time of birth the organism is completely
  hominidized (its biological structure is already
  formed), yet it is not humanized at all. We
  become human through the internalization of
  culture.

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discuss...
Blank pg. 45
...just kidding!