Ryšys tarp mąstymo ir kalbos. Relation between thinking and language in Lev Vygotsky’s and Jean Piaget theories of egocentrism

Introduction

Modern Psychology studies a wide range of areas in human mental life. Depending on the aspect on which a psychological object is being studied, different branches of Psychology can be named. Cognitive Psychology is a Psychology branch, which focuses its research on cognition, on how information, associated with mental phenomena such as perception, memory, attention, thinking and emotion, is processed in the brain. Thinking is a very specific process during which we perform complex mental operations and obtained results can not always be seen, heard or touched. Even though, it is so complex, it is an integral part of our daily life from early childhood to old age. Thinking occurs in the combination of practical activities and sensory cognition. Cognitive activity, which began in feelings and perceptions, continue to move into the thinking. It is not enough to have a view that was derived through the senses and perception for a comprehensive understanding of the world. It does not reflect the relationship between object, event or phenomenon (Matuliene, 2002). It does not reflect causes and consequences of any relation. We need thinking to understand qualities and relations in the world surrounding us.

The process of thinking is related not only with senses, but also with language. This is the main difference between human and animal psyche. Animals have visual thinking, so they can not separate the object of cognition and its features, can not name the feature. Thinking is possible without language, but language plays an important role in thought development. When we formulate our thoughts aloud to others, we at the same time understand them more clearly ourselves. Fundamental assumptions of discursive (lot. “discursivus" – mental, based on reasoning) thinking lies in our words and thought formulation (Matuliene, 2002).

In this paper we examine relationship between thought and language. Our concept of language does not include written language, our concern is put on verbal speech and non-verbal inner speech. At first, we examine two perspectives of learning, one of which were derived from classic psychologist Jean Piaget and the other from another well-known psychologist Lev Vygotsky. In the second part we concentrate on Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of child thought and language development, especially concentrating on egocentric speech as it was the main point where two psychologists had different views. We conclude with some critique for both psychologists and corrections made by further researchers.