Verbal Regulation of Motor Behavior – Soviet Research and Non-Soviet Replications

Abstract

Soviet investigations of the development of verbal inhibition of perseverative manual behavior are reviewed; and Luria’s theroretical analysis is critically examined within the broader context of the Soviet psycho-philosophical position on the development of voluntary behavior. Unsuccessful non-Soviet attempts to replicate the Soviet work are then discussed; and it is suggested that failure to replicate may be traced to inappropriate methodology deriving from misinterpretation of the nature of verbal-inhibitory phenomena and lack of appreciation for underlying Soviet psycho-philosophical assumptions. Lastly, non-Soviet investigations of verbal-manual interaction are considered in relation to the Soviet view of the development of voluntary behavior; and it is argued, on the basis of this evidence, that the Soviet position need not stand or fall on the replicability of the specific verbal-inhibition-of-perseveration phenomena described by Luria.

“Should I let them talk?”: Private speech and task performance among preschool children with and without behavior problems

“…These studies found that young children (3-5.5 years old) were able to successfully complete the task when the number of squeezes matched the number of syllables/words in the verbalization but were unable to succeed when there was inequality between the number of squeezes and syllables (e.g., a child asked to say "Squeeze two times," would squeeze three times -once for every word -instead of twice). With increasing age, verbal instructions from either the experimenter or from the self gained in their regulatory effect on children's motor behavior (Luria, 1959(Luria, , 1961Wozniak, 1972).…”

Memory Development Between 2 and 20

“…Many studies have confirmed Soviet hypotheses about the influence of incidental memory processes on memory in preschoolers and school cbildren (e.g., Geis & Hall, 1976Ghatala, 1984;Ghatala &Levin, 1981Owings &Baumeister, 1979;Sophian & Hagen, 1978). Nonetheless, much of the Soviet researchwas embedded in dialectical models (e.g., Riegel, 1974Riegel, , 1975) that were not nearly as appeallog to North American developmentalists (nor as available or comprehensible to them; e.g., Wozniak, 1972Wozniak, , 1975 as the models of human information processing that predominated in adult cognitive psychology in the Iate 1960s and early 1970s. Thus, the Soviet positionbad lirnited impact.…”

Dialectic Operations: The Final Period of Cognitive Development1

“…A developmental theory emphasizing the interactions between psychic activities and those of the cu1tural-historical conditions has been proposed by Soviet psychologists~notably Vigotsky, Luria and Leont'ev. A theory integrating both interaction systems and, thus, regarding psychic activities and development in their joint interaction with both inner biological and outer cultural historical conditions has been proposed by S. L. Rubinstein (see Payne, 1968;Riegel, 1972bRiegel, , 1973aWozniak. 1972).…”