Revolution in the Cognitive Psychology of Development

• Main Author: Elena A. Sergienko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 2009-01-01
• Series: Psychology in Russia: State of Art
• Subjects: revolutionary changes; cognitive development; early ontogenesis; representative infant; perception and action; ontogenesis of subjectivity; theory of mind; theories of mental formation.
• Online Access: http://psychologyinrussia.com/volumes/pdf/2009/15_2009_sergienko.pdf

The recent revolutionary changes in the cognitive psychology of development, touching upon the basic conceptions of psychology, are generalized in this article. The problem of theoretical changes connected with systemic evolutionary approach, dynamic nonlinear system theory, and connectionism, is discussed. The author analyses four basic theses of revolutionary changes: from sensory-motor infant to representative one; from the leading role of activity to the unity of perception and action; about the continuity of the subject formation, instead of axiom of subjectivity of the adult, mature person; about the continuance of genetic and environmental instead of social primacy in the mental development of a person. There are key arguments of new conceptions, obtained by the author and other researchers.