Lisina. [Development of cognitive activity of children in the process of communication with adults and age-peers]

Abstract:
Psychological ideas concerning activity in general as well as some particular forms of it (psychological, mental, intellectual, and cognitive activities) has been analyzed on the material obtained in experimental studies of Soviet researchers. The author puts forward a hypothesis that communication with others plays the determining role in development of cognitive activity in children. Some critical facts established by the author and his coworkers as a result of studies of communication and cognition in infants and in pre-school children are presented to prove the hypothesis. Possible mechanisms of the effect of communication on development of cognition are discussed.