Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development: Through the Vygotsky Route (Latin American Voices) 3030729524, 9783030729523

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Latin American Voices Integrative Psychology and Humanities

Pablo Fossa   Editor

Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development Through the Vygotsky Route

Latin American Voices Integrative Psychology and Humanities Series Editor Giuseppina Marsico, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy Editorial Board Alicia Barreiro, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina Antônio VirgÍlio Bastos, Psychology Institute, Universidade Federal daBahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil Angela Uchoa Branco, Inst de Psicologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brasília, Brazil Felix Cova-Solar, Department of Psychology, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile Maria Virginia Dazzani, Institute of Psychology, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil Gabriela Di Gesú, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina Ana Maria Jacó-Vilela, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil María Noel Lapoujade, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mxico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Maria Lyra, Graduate Program in Psychology, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil María Elisa Molina Pavez, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile Susanne Normann, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Julio Cesar Ossa, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Cali, Colombia Gilberto Pérez-Campos, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México, Mexico Lilian Patricia Rodríguez-Burgos, University of La Sabana, Chía, Colombia Mónica Roncancio-Moreno, Psychology Department, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Palmira, CAUCA, Colombia Lívia Mathias Simão, Institute of Psychology, Universidade de São Paulo,  São Paulo - SP, Brazil

Luca Tateo, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University,  Aalborg Øst, Denmark Jaan Valsiner, Department of Communication & Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg Øst, Denmark Floor van Alphen, Department of Basic Psychology, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain In the last decades, Latin America has been a productive and fertile ground for the advancement of theoretical and empirical elaborations within psychology, social and human sciences. Yet, these contributions have had a hard time to be internationally recognized in its original contribution and in its transformative heuristic power. Latin American Voices – Integrative Psychology and Humanities intends to fill this gap by offering an international forum of scholarly interchanges that deal with psychological and socio-cultural processes from a cultural psychological perspective. The book series seeks to be a solid theoretically-based, though still empirical, arena of interdisciplinary and international debate, as well as a worldwide scientific platform for communicating key ideas of methodology and different theoretical approaches to relevant issues in psychology and humanities. It will publish books from researchers working in Latin America in the different fields of psychology at interplay with other social and human sciences. Proposals dealing with new perspectives, innovative ideas and new topics of interdisciplinary kind are especially welcomed. Both solicited and unsolicited proposals are considered for publication in this series. All proposals and manuscripts submitted to the Series will undergo at least two rounds of external peer review. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16145

Pablo Fossa Editor

Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development Through the Vygotsky Route

Editor Pablo Fossa Faculty of Psychology Universidad del Desarrollo Santiago, Chile

ISSN 2524-5805     ISSN 2524-5813 (electronic) Latin American Voices ISBN 978-3-030-72952-3    ISBN 978-3-030-72953-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72953-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents

1 Why Follow the Vygotsky Route?����������������������������������������������������������    1 Pablo Fossa Part I New Theoretical Elaborations and Empirical Advances Through Vygotsky´s Work 2 What Can Gestures Tell Us About Vygotsky’s Findings?��������������������    7 Pablo Fossa and Nicolás González 3 Contributions of the Concept of Zone of Proximal Development to the Intersubjective Understanding of Internship Supervision in Clinical Psychology ��������������������������������   25 Nádia Oliveira da Silva, Candy Estelle Marques Laurendon, and Marina Assis Pinheiro 4 Exploring Imaginative Processes in Adolescence: A Case Study Following Cultural-Dialogical Approach����������������������   43 Elsa de Mattos 5 Psychological Development as History: Developing Notions of Historicity and Temporality in Vygotsky’s Work and Life������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   63 Nilson Guimarães Doria and Livia Mathias Simão 6 The Development of Subjectivity in Community Spaces of Vulnerability: Perspectives from Cultural-Historical Psychology������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   83 Svieta Valia Fernández-González and Luis Alberto Taype-Huarca 7 Game Playing and Rules Management: A View at Children’s Development from Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory ��������������������������  103 Hernán Sánchez Ríos and Mónica Reyes-Rojas

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Contents

8 IMEIN and MEIN Methods: Psychoeducational Resources for Cognitive Development in Early Childhood������������������������������������  123 Lourdes Mara Ilizástigui del Portal 9 Thinking Outside the Box: Externalization of Psychological Functions and the Extended Mind����������������������������  147 Nicolás González Part II Vygotsky’s Contribution to Cultural-­Historical Psychology in Latin America 10 Consciousness as a Key Construct in L.S. Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Psychology and Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy: A Latin American Perspective��������������������������������  171 Wanda C. Rodríguez Arocho 11 The Quest for a Concrete Psychology: A New Vygotskyan Way in Argentina ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  189 Nicolás Robles López and Tamara Klein 12 Vygotsky in Context and Depth: Proposals, Legacy, and Continuity in Latin America�����������������������������������������������������������  211 Luis Alberto Taype-Huarca and Svieta Valia Fernández-González 13 The Vygotskian Contribution to the Construction of a General Theory of Human Learning����������������������������������������������  227 Christian Sebastián, Martín Vergara, and María Rosa Lissi 14 Cultural-Historical Psychology in Latin America: An Interview with Fernando González Rey������������������������������������������  249 Daniel Magalhães Goulart and Fernando González Rey Part III Final Comments 15 The Future of Subjectivity and Development: Searching for the Lost Sense ������������������������������������������������������������������  269 Pablo Fossa Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  275

About the Editor

Editor Pablo  Fossa  is a professor and researcher in the Faculty of Psychology, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He received his PhD degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a Postdoctoral position from the National Commission of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) of Chile. Pablo does research in cognition, cultural psychology and phenomenology. He is member of the International Society for Cultural- Historical Activity Research (ISCAR), International Society for Theoretical Psychology (ISTP), and the International Society for Dialogical Self (ISDS). Currently, he is PhD(c) in Philosophy at the University of Navarra, Spain.

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About the Contributors

Nádia  Oliveira  da Silva  obtained her master’s degree in cognitive psychology from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), defending her dissertation entitled “Considerations about the professional activity of the clinical supervisor in psychology.” She is currently a doctoral student of the graduate program in cognitive psychology at UFPE and Research Center member of Argumentation (NupArg). She is especially interested in the following subjects: vocational training; internship supervision in psychology, relationships between argumentation, and development of reflective critical thinking in professional education contexts. Elsa de Mattos,  PhD, is a professor of psychology in graduate and undergraduate courses. Her research focuses on developmental transition, more specifically on process of adolescent and youth development in urban contexts, including dialogical relations with significant others, school and work transitions, as well as family transitions. Lourdes  Mara  Ilizástigui  Del Portal  is a Cuban psychologist, with Chilean nationality, living in Chile since 1966. She has a PhD in educational research and innovation from the University of Malaga, Spain. She also has a master’s degree in special education from the University of Havana and the Latin American Reference Center for Special Education (CELAEE). Lourdes is certified in early childhood care by the University of Malaga and has a degree in psychology from the University of Havana, Cuba. Her degree as a psychologist was revalidated by the University of Chile. Nilson  Guimarães  Doria,  PhD, is assistant professor in the Department of Education at Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil, where he coordinates the pedagogy undergraduate course. His main current research interests are the historicity of psychological phenomena and psychological development through historical time, adopting an approach that intertwines semiotic cultural psychology, historical psychology, and the dialogue with social sciences, chiefly history, sociology, and game studies. ix

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About the Contributors

Nicolás Gonzalez  is a graduate psychologist from the Faculty of Psychology of Universidad del Desarrollo. He also has a diploma in neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Lately, he has entered the field of research in cognitive psychology by collaborating with Universidad del Desarrollo’s research team. Svieta Valia Fernández González  is a psychologist, holding a master’s degree in higher education from the National University of San Agustin. She is a researcher associated to the Center for Research in Historical-Cultural Psychological CIPS-HC. Svieta completed a research internship at the University of Brasilia. She served as a university professor in courses of community and educational and research psychology. She currently works as a psychopedagogical coordinator at the Ministry of Education of Perú. Svieta has carried out research on the lines of teenager protagonism, social subjectivity in neighborhood organizations, pedagogical authority in higher education, and subjective and community processes. Daniel Magalhães Goulart  is an assistant professor in the Department of Theory and Foundations, Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia. He completed his PhD at the Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia. His research interests focus on psychology and education from the cultural-historical approach of subjectivity in the fields of critical mental health care, subjective development, and education. His latest books are: (1) Subjectivity and critical mental health: Lessons from Brazil (2019, Routledge); (2) Subjectivity Within Cultural-Historical Approach: Theory, Methodology and Research (Springer, 2019). Luis Alberto Taype Huarca  is a psychologist, holding a master’s degree in clinical, educational, child and adolescent psychology from the National University of San Agustín (Arequipa, Perú). He is professor at the Catholic University of Santa Maria (Arequipa, Perú) and a researcher associated to the Center for Studie and Research in Neuropsychology (CEINPS). Luis founded the Center for Research in Historical-Cultural Psychological (CIPS-HC). He is a member of the editorial committee of the journal Epistemology, Psychology and Social Sciences. His research projects are oriented to child neuropsychology and the theoretical-critical study of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical legacy. Tamara Klein  is a Bachelor of Psychology (School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires), teaching assistant at the School of Psychology (history of psychology), and doctoral fellow (CONICET) and PhD student (School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires). Candy Marques Laurendon  holds a doctorate degree in cognitive psychology co-tutorship from the University of Angers (France) and Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN, Brazil), a master’s degree in developmental psychology, and a major degree in intercultural psychology (University of Toulouse II, France). She is currently professor of educational psychology in the Center of Education and

About the Contributors

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contributor professor of psychology in the graduate program of cognitive psychology at Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). Trained in ethnography approach, her current research is about conceptions of students and teachers from elementary school, professional learning, and everyday learning of illiterate adults, using qualitative methods. María Rosa Lissi  is a psychologist at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) with a master’s degree in deaf education (Lamar University) and a PhD in educational psychology (The University of Texas). She is a full professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. Her research focuses on deaf student’s learning of reading comprehension strategies and scientific concepts. She has also studied processes involved in the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools and higher education settings. Nicolás  Robles  López  is a Bachelor of Psychology (School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires), teaching assistant at the School of Psychology (genetic psychology and epistemology, and PhD student (School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires). Marina  Assis  Pinheiro  is a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology and in the graduate program of cognitive psychology at Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). She coordinates the research group LabDec-­ Laboratory of studies on dialogism, aesthetic experience and creativity. She is especially interested in the following subjects: creativity and aesthetic experience, art and psychology, language and subjectivity, and culture and singularity. Fernando  González  Rey  (1949–2019) was full professor in the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences at the University Centre of Brasília, and a senior associate researcher in the Faculty of Education at the University of Brasília. He was also a coordinator of the research group Subjectivity in Health and in Education at the University of Brasília. He obtained his PhD degree from the Institute of General and Pedagogic Psychology of Moscow. Fernando also obtained his Doctor of Science degree from the Institute of Psychology of the Sciences Academy of Moscow. His latest books are: (1) Cultural-Historical and Critical Psychology: Common Ground, Divergences and Future Pathways; (2) Subjectivity Within Cultural-Historical Approach: Theory, Methodology and Research (Springer, 2019); (3) Perezhivanie, Emotions and Subjectivity: Advancing Vygotsky’s Legacy (Springer, 2017). Hernán Sánchez Ríos,  PhD, is a professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Universidad del Valle, Colombia, and coordinator of the Research Group in Development and Cultural Contexts (Universidad del Valle). He is a researcher in the Department Science and Technology, Colombia (COLCIENCIAS), and a postdoctoral student in the graduate program of experimental psychology, IP-USP, Brazil. His research projects are in the interfaces of cognitive development, social development, and interaction contexts from a semiotic cultural and constructivist perspective

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About the Contributors

Wanda C. Rodríguez Arocho  is a retired full professor from the University of Puerto Rico, where she received a doctoral degree in psychology (1989) and a master’s degree in education (1977). She worked for 25  years in the Department of Psychology in that institution after 5 years of teaching and counseling work in K-12 public schools in urban and rural areas in Puerto Rico. Her teaching and research work has focused on cognitive processes, learning, and human development from a cultural-historical perspective. She has 4 books and more than 50 articles in professional journals and edited books. She has been a guest lecturer, professor, and consultant in many Latin American universities and has occupied leadership positions at the American Psychological Association, American Counseling Association, and the Interamerican Society of Psychology. Mónica Reyes Rojas  is a PhD student at Univalle University and professor at the University of Magdalena. Additionally, she belongs to the group Cognition and Education. The research projects are focused on early childhood, well-being, psychology of humor, and cultural psychology of development. Currently, she is interested in the development of child humor processes in the socio-cultural perspective and semiotic cultural and constructivist perspective. Christian  Sebastián  is an educational psychologist with a PhD in psychology (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium). He is associate professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. His research focuses on adult learning from the historical-cultural approach. He has researched cognitive, identity, and motivational aspects of human learning. In recent years, his focus has been on the development of epistemic thinking in the initial training of student teachers through the use of serious games. Lívia Mathias Simão,  PhD, is associate and senior professor at the Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she coordinates the Laboratory of Verbal Interaction and Knowledge Construction. Her main research interests concern issues embracing the ontological construction of human subjectivity in I-Other-­ World relationships from the perspective of the semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology. This approach emphasizes issues regarding the psycho-philosophical notions of alterity, temporality, and disquieting experiences. Martín  Vergara  is a doctoral assistant at the Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. An educational psychologist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he participated in research projects on deaf students’ acquisition of reading comprehension strategies, on epistemic development of pre-service teachers, and on students’ transitions in higher education. His research interests focus on learning, social interactions, and concept development.

Chapter 1

Why Follow the Vygotsky Route? Pablo Fossa

Vygotsky’s work has undoubtedly been a great contribution to the development of psychology. His legacy has impacted in areas such as education, culture, and the study of cognition. His theoretical development was influenced by the historical context of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. His early death prevented the development and the deepening of his research and, the problems of translation of his work from Russian into other languages, has generated some differences and conceptual impressions in later works that have taken Vygotsky’s work as a frame of reference. As a result, there are more questions than answers regarding Vygotsky’s work. Vygotsky’s work is characterized by a first part focused on the development of higher psychological functions, through the internalization process and the zone of potential/proximal development as a central aspect of the social construction of the mind. And, on the other hand, a second part of Vygotsky’s work focuses on the cognitive-affective integration, the search for the unit of analysis of the study of consciousness and the role of emotions as an inseparable aspect of cognition, where the notion of meaning and perezhivanie is fundamental (Fleer, Gonzalez-Rey, & Veresov, 2017; Fossa, 2017; Fossa, Madrigal Pérez, & Muñoz Marcotti, 2020; Vygotsky, 1934, 2004). The complexity and depth with which Vygotsky observed the development of psychological functions in permanent relationship with culture have allowed us to continue reflecting and developing new theoretical elaborations of his postulates. One of the main concepts developed by Vygotsky is subjectivity. Subjectivity is where the social-individual world is inseparable from the social-cultural world, and it is in that interaction where human beings develop and experience the world (Fleer et al., 2017). In this way, the notion that the environment influences and stimulates

P. Fossa () Faculty of Psychology, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Fossa (ed.), Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development, Latin American Voices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72953-0_1

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human development is attributable to Vygotsky and historical-cultural psychology, which permeates all traditions in psychology (Vygotsky, 1934, 1978, 2012). Internalization constitutes a fundamental theoretical aspect in Vygotsky’s works and in historical-cultural psychology. For Vygotsky (1934, 2012), psychological functions appear twice in human development: first in the interpsychic space, and then in the intrapsychic space. That is, psychological functions and processes are internalized in the psyche after being experienced in interaction with culture. In this way cognition becomes more complex, and it is more prepared for increasingly complex social challenges. In Vygotsky’s words: The internalization of cultural forms of behaviour implies the reconstruction of psychological activity based on operations with signs (…) the internalization of socially rooted and historically developed activities is the distinctive feature of human psychology, it is the basis of the qualitative leap from animal psychology towards human psychology. (Vygotsky, 2012, p. 94)

In this quote, it is possible to appreciate once again the relevance of the human-­ culture interaction for psychological development. This person-culture interaction is directly related to what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The ZPD is the basis for cognitive development and for the development of high-­ order psychological functions. For Vygotsky, the establishment of challenges in culture allows us to develop psychological functions that, if not developed, wouldn’t allow us to solve certain tasks (Vygotsky, 1978, 2012; Wertsch, 1985, 1993). Therefore, the tasks of culture require the emergence of new functional connections of consciousness and qualitative evolution of basic psychological functions toward higher psychological functions. This is what Wertsch (1985) has called the social origin of higher psychological functions. The aforementioned accounts for an important relational dimension in Vygotsky’s work: the construction of the psyche and the psychological development is with others. The psychological experience, then, transcends social determinism and the individual psyche, showing dynamics that are culturally interpreted and co-­ experienced (March & Fleer, 2017). On the other hand, the notion of mediation and the development of language are also the central theoretical aspects in Vygotsky’s work. The formation of signs and symbols is a central characteristic in the human being; only in this way it is possible to mediate the experience with the other human being and the world. This allows us to understand relational processes as living processes and human development as a process of sociocultural genesis of the mind (Veresov, 2017). The convergence of the two lines of psychological development, which previously were independent in the history of psychology, has been attributed to Vygotsky. By this, I refer to the intersection of language and thought (Vygotsky, 1934, 2012). The notion of meaning was born as a unit of analysis of this convergence, becoming the main focus of study in ideographic and phenomenological research in psychology. The famous inter-functional analysis of psychological processes, that is, the motion to study phenomena in units and not in segregated elements of

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consciousness, is also a Vygotskyan inheritance to all those who are interested in the study of psychological functions (Cornejo, 2015; Fossa, 2017; Fossa et  al., 2020; Valsiner & Van der Veer, 2000; Wertsch, 1993). Vygotsky discovered all these findings through the use of the genetic method (Wertsch, 1985), a contribution that he took from the works of previous authors such as Werner (1955, 1956) and that he spread in psychology as a methodological strategy to approach the study of psychological phenomena. Until now, different investigations have used the genetic method to continue the study of Vygotskyan findings (Granott & Parziale, 2002; Siegler & Crowley, 1991; Fossa et al. Submitted). All these findings, among other important findings in Vygotsky’s work, have had repercussions in the different fields of study and have been deepened by contemporary researchers. However, there are important reflections on who wrote about Vygotsky and what he actually wrote (Van der Veer & Yasnitsky, 2016). Some differences in the translations or editions of the original texts by the editors have complicated the understanding of Vygotskyan ideas (Van der Veer & Yasnitsky, 2016). Unpublished writings have even been discovered in Vygotsky’s personal archives, such as the book On the Problem of Investigating Consciousness, which has allowed the completion of some Vygotskyan ideas (Zavershneva, 2016). In short, Vygotsky has left nothing resolved but open questions, which makes the discussion exciting and has allowed him to continue his legacy and extend his conceptualizations to new horizons. Vygotsky undoubtedly constitutes all the ingredients to be considered a classic, which should not be left unread when one begins studies on psychological processes in psychology. Various recent works have attempted to reconstruct Vygotsky’s legacy and the extensions that his postulates have had in various fields of knowledge (Fleer et al., 2017; Yasnitsky, 2019; Yasnitsky, Van der Veer, Aguilar, & García, 2016); however, none have explored the impact and advances that Vygotsky’s work has had in Latin America. In recent decades, Latin America has had a growing theoretical and empirical development from Vygotsky’s work. Different Latin American researchers have expanded Vygotskyan conceptualizations and have applied practical theory to different areas of psychology, reflecting and solving the different political, social, and economic problems of the region. This book presents new theoretical elaborations based on Vygotsky’s work and new methodological applications to different fields of study of psychology, for example, psychotherapy, education, developmental psychology and community psychology, the study of the cognition, and gestures, among others. This book tries to compile the legacy of Vygotsky in Latin America, presenting new theoretical elaborations and empirical applications of different researchers in the region, thus allowing revisiting Vygotsky’s work to think about the current demands of the discipline, research, and culture.

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References Cornejo, C. (2015). Searching for the microcosm: A glimpse into the roots of Vygotsky’s holism. History of the Human Sciences, 28(2), 72–92. Fossa, P. (2017). La dimensión expresiva del habla interna. Psicologia USP, 28(3), 318–326. Fossa, P., Madrigal Pérez, R., & Muñoz Marcotti, C. (2020). The relationship between inner speech and emotions: Revisiting the study of passions in psychology. Human Arenas, 3(2), 229–246. Fleer, M., Gonzalez-Rey, F., & Veresov, N. (2017). Perezhivanie, emotions and subjectivity: Advancing Vygotsky’s legacy. Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Granott, N., & Parziale, J. (2002). Microdevelopment: Transition process in development and learning. London: Cambridge University Press. March, S., & Fleer, M. (2017). The role of imagination and anticipation in children’s emotional development. In M. Fleer, F. Gonzalez Rey, & N. Veresov (Eds.), Perezhivanie, emotions and subjectivity: Advancing Vygotsky’s legacy. Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Siegler, R. S., & Crowley, K. (1991). The microgenetic method: A direct means for studying cognitive development. American Psychologist, 46, 406–620. Van der Veer, R., & Yasnitsky, A. (2016). Traducir a Vygotski: algunos problemas de la ciencia trasnacional vygotskiana. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer, E. Aguilar, & L. N. Gracía (Eds.), Vygotski Revisitado: Una historia crítica de su contexto y legado. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Miño y Dávila. Valsiner, J., & Van der Veer, R. (2000). The social mind: Construction of the idea. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Veresov, N. (2017). The concepto of Perezhivanie in cultural-historical theory: Content and contexts. In M. Fleer, F. Gonzalez-Rey, & N. Veresov (Eds.), Perezhivanie, emotions and subjectivity: Advancing Vygotsky’s legacy. Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Vygotsky, L. (1934). Pensamiento y Lenguaje. Madrid, Spain: Machado. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The developmental of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. (2004). Teoría de las Emociones: Estudio histórico-psicológico. Madrid, Spain: Akal. Vygotsky, L. (2012). El desarrollo de los procesos psicológicos superiores. Barcelona, Spain: Austral. Werner, H. (1955). A psychological analysis of expressive language. In On expressive language. Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. Werner, H. (1956). Microgenesis and aphasia. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52, 347–353. Wertsch, J. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J. (1993). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Yasnitsky, A., Van der Veer, R., Aguilar, E., & García, N. (2016). Vigotski Revisitado: Una historia crítica de su contexto y legado. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Miño y Dávila. Yasnitsky, A. (2019). Questioning Vygotsky’s legacy. New York: Routledge. Zavershneva, Y. (2016). El camino a la libertad: Vygotski en 1932. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer, E. Aguilar, & L. N. Gracía (Eds.), Vygotski Revisitado: Una historia crítica de su contexto y legado. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Miño y Dávila.

Part I

New Theoretical Elaborations and Empirical Advances Through Vygotsky´s Work

Chapter 2

What Can Gestures Tell Us About Vygotsky’s Findings? Pablo Fossa and Nicolás González

Vygotsky has been one of the most important authors in the history of psychology. The theoretical elaboration that he developed—from detailed research observations— has allowed his postulates to echo in various areas of psychology, namely, education, community psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive sciences and psychotherapy. His findings in the area of knowledge comprising human development and subjectivity have enabled a deeper understanding of psychological functions and the complex framework that supports their development and expression. Notions, such as inner speech, meaning and sense, imagination, higher psychological functions, internalization-externalization, perezhivanie and inter-­functional analysis, among others, make Vygotsky’s work a landmark in the study of psychological functioning, subjectivity and human development. However, Vygotsky did not incorporate the analysis of gestures in the study of higher psychological functions and human development. In this chapter, we present new theoretical elaborations that emerge from Vygotsky’s main constructs—and also how we have attempted to validate these proposals empirically. The aim of this chapter is to show how research on gestures may further expand the scope of Vygotskyan discoveries. That is to say to show how the theoretical elaborations based on Vygotsky’s central postulates find empirical validation in the analysis of gestures. Finally, some methodologies aimed at capturing Vygotsky’s conceptual proposals in the laboratory are discussed.

P. Fossa () · N. González Faculty of Psychology, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Fossa (ed.), Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development, Latin American Voices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72953-0_2

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2.1  T  he Embodied Nature of Inner Speech: Beyond Problem-Solving In the final chapter of his last work, Vygotsky (1934) presents his research on the phenomenon of inner speech. In this work, his efforts are focused on analysing and understanding the phonetic, syntactic and semantic functions of the phenomenon— as well as understanding the microgenetic development in acts of inner speech. The phenomenon of inner speech refers to the experience of dialoguing with oneself in silence (Fossa, 2017). As such, it constitutes a decisive point of intersection to elucidate the relationship between language and thought as psychological functions. Despite its inherent proximity to vocalized speech, Vygotsky’s advances have made possible to realize that the psychological laws that govern the nature of these experiences are qualitatively different. Compared to vocalized speech, inner speech lacks sound (phonetic aspect); tends to omit the subjects of a sentence and keep the predicates exclusively (syntactic aspect) and presents itself in a narrative of fewer words loaded with greater sense (semantic aspect) (Vygotsky, 1934, 2012). These aspects converge to make inner speech a much more condensed type of speech, which is why sometimes is enough to reference a single word internally to bring about a complex idea. The central characteristics of inner speech are thus evidenced, namely, the primacy of sense over the meaning of words and the tendencies towards abbreviation and predication in sentences. In relation to these findings, Vygotsky (1934) concludes that there is no equivalence or linear translation process between the elements of inner speech and their vocalized expression—for, in order to be vocalized, the condensed structure of inner speech has to be transformed and adapted to the social rules of communicative language. In this line, Vygotsky (1934) describes the genetic development of thoughts from their origin in consciousness to their final expression as vocalized speech. Along this path, thoughts are first mediated by internal words—of idiosyncratic semantic content and structural composition—and then by the external meanings of those internalized words. In this process, the external meanings come to describe and complete the thought in a structured sentence conforming to the norms of social discourse. In the works of Piaget (1923) and Vygotsky (1934), the main function of inner speech has been attributed to problem-solving and the development of practical intelligence. Therefore, it is in that context that it was mostly studied by the authors: The greatest change in children’s capacity to use language as a problem-solving tool takes place somewhat later in their development, when socialized speech (which has previously been used to address an adult) is turned inward. Instead of appealing to the adult, children appeal to themselves; language thus takes on an intrapersonal function in addition to its interpersonal use. When children develop a method of behaviour for guiding themselves that had previously been used in relation to another person, when they organize their own activities according to a social form of behaviour, they succeed in applying a social attitude

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to themselves. The history of the process of the internalization of social speech is also the history of the socialization of children’s practical intellect (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 27).

However, it is possible to remark that this practical dimension of inner speech refers to the most advanced phases of the act, which consequently also correspond to those furthest away from the primitive moments in the formation of a thought. At this point, it becomes important to remember the classic Vygotskyan expression that says ‘thinking is not the last thing in the analysis of cognitive activity. A thought does not arise from itself nor from other thoughts, but from the affectivevolitional sphere of consciousness’ (Vygotsky, 1934, p.  342). In this sense, it is possible to conceive the existence of a basal affective matrix in the development of the psychological experience and in the unfolding of cognitive functions. In his work, Vygotsky emphasizes that a complete understanding of another person’s thought is only possible to the extent that its affective-volitional foundation is accounted for. In this line, he argues that there is a basic affective-volitional tendency behind each thought and form of expression—which corresponds to the last ‘why’ in the analysis of thought. Taking the subtext of a theatrical script as an example, Vygotsky shows the complexity and depth of the relationship between word and thought, which dynamically moves through a series of planes between the motives of consciousness and intelligible speech (Vygotsky, 1934). In the different parts of Vygotsky’s work, references to Karl Bühler are made. Bühler was a theoretical psychologist of human language and with him appears a new function of language not deepened in the history of psychology: the expressive dimension. Bühler (1934), who wrote Theory of Language the same year that Vygotsky (1934) wrote Thought and Language, proposes that human language does not only have a declarative propositional and appellative function but also an expressive function, which is directly linked to the subjectivity of the transmitter and its deeper affective sphere. In a related topic, Heinz Werner—a developmental psychologist—has been recognized for his studies on human perception. Through the use of the tachistoscope in the study of normal development and psychiatric disorders, he was able to observe the embodied nature of human cognition. In his works, Werner (1955, 1956) describes an organismic involvement during the primitive stages of cognitive acts, that is, the subjectivity of the transmitter being embedded in the cognitive action. Current theoretical elaborations have proposed that if inner speech constitutes an internalization of the child’s egocentric language (outer language), it would also maintain the dimensions proposed by Bühler (Fossa, 2017, 2019). That is, inner speech would also maintain an expressive dimension, which can be directly linked to the primitive stages of inner speech described by Vygotsky (1934) and the physiognomic nature of human cognition described by Werner (1955, 1956). The affective sphere of consciousness acts at the base of cognitive development, allowing primitive states of cognition to emerge. This is a nonconceptual thinking that constitutes the forms of inner speech without the mediation of the word. At this stage, thoughts are loaded with affects and are also less prone to cognitive control.

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This primitive form of cognition involves organismic aspects in Werner’s sense, since it involves sensory-bodily aspects that will later become cognitive-intellectual. Different studies carried out by Werner (see Werner, 1955, 1956; Werner & Kaplan, 1963) demonstrate an involvement of corporeality and a sensory dimension in the primitive moments of cognitive-perceptual activity. Thus, following Werner’s findings, an argument could be made for a link between gestures as a bodily manifestation and inner speech, especially in its expressive dimension.

2.1.1  T  he Voluntary and Involuntary Dimensions of Inner Speech As Vygotsky proposed in his work Thought and Language, inner speech is not experienced in a unique way throughout the emergence of a verbal thought. On the contrary, there are dynamic and dialectical fluctuations in all possible directions within the poles of the continuum between vocalized language and the affective sphere of consciousness—and the process itself might stop in any of its phases (Vygotsky, 1934). From Vygotsky’s perspective, every cognitive act is affectively motivated, yet there are different levels of control in the expression of inner speech. Problem-solving is the function that has been classically attributed to the phenomenon of inner speech, first by Vygotsky and then by post-Vygotskyans. This function of inner speech is characterized by cognitive effort and control over thought. Here, the willingness to guide the inner speech towards the resolution of a task stands out as its central feature. On the other hand, as has been elaborated, there are primitive stages of inner speech that are characterized by an affective predominance. These expressions of inner speech are thus experienced with a lower degree of cognitive control and voluntary thinking (Fossa, 2019; Fossa et  al., 2018; Suárez Delucchi & Fossa Arcila, 2020). The voluntary and nonvoluntary expressions of inner speech have also been described in recent literature as spontaneous or deliberate under a new cognitive phenomenon called mind wandering. Early definitions of mental wandering considered it to be an ‘unintended’ deviation of thought (Seli, Carriere, & Smilek, 2015), while later updates have also described a deliberate version of the phenomenon (Andrews-Hanna, Irving, Fox, Spreng, & Christoff, 2017). However, mind wandering has been differentiated from the classic Vygotskyan discoveries on inner speech in further research (Fossa, Gonzalez, & Cordero Di Montezemolo, 2018). Different theoretical and empirical studies have modelled this deliberate-­ spontaneous continuum and have also described the intermediate forms of mental activity (Andrews-Hanna et al., 2017; Fossa, Gonzalez, et al., 2018). In the same way, a controlled-spontaneous continuum can also be observed in the unfolding of inner speech. Where the deliberate or controlled forms of inner speech

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have been described as being task-oriented, denotative and propositional, as being manifested through words to a greater extent and carrying a lower affective load and as having a leading role in problem-solving (Fossa, 2017; Fossa, Awad, et al., 2018). On the other hand, the spontaneous or involuntary forms of inner speech have been described as imagistic, preverbal, nonpropositional and contemplative, with a greater presence of affects (Fossa, 2019; Fossa, Awad, et al., 2018). Nonetheless, while the relationship between the controlled and the spontaneous is best understood as a continuum, various states of mind may reflect the primacy of one of these forms of activity. Considering the close relationship that exists between the corporeal and cognitive dimensions according to Werner’s (1955, 1956) approaches, as well as the indivisible link between language and the expressive dimension proposed by Bühler (1934), the question regarding the bodily correlate of inner speech at different points on the deliberate-spontaneous continuum arises. In relation to this topic, studies have shown correlations between somatic markers and the levels of cognitive effort in study subjects. For example, it has been shown how effort in various cognitive tasks is associated with pupil dilation of participants in experimental tests (Van der Wel & Van Steenbergen, 2018). Along these lines, bodily expressions associated with gestures may be identified as one of the most interesting instances to understand human subjectivity and nonobservable phenomena such as inner speech.

2.2  Concept Formation and the Flow of Thought The research presented by Vygotsky (1934) on Chapters 5 and 6 of the book Thought and Language, respectively entitled Experimental investigation of the development of the concepts and Study of the development of scientific concepts in childhood, have been fundamental to the theoretical and empirical development within the study of thought and inner speech. The research on these concepts has made it possible to understand the variables involved in the acts of thinking and in the complexity of human communication between two or more interlocutors. The process of concept formation is the process by which ‘the meaningful structure that underlies the word’ is formed (Vygotsky, 1934, p. 178). In other words, the development of the word’s significance (Larrain & Haye, 2014). In his research on concepts, Vygotsky states: The process of concept formation is not simply the quantitative transformation of an internal form, it is not an increase in the number of connections, but it rather constitutes a different and new type of activity, qualitatively irreducible to the sum of associative connections and whose main difference consists of the transition from immediate intellectual processes to operations mediated by signs (Vygotsky, 1934, p. 134).

For Vygotsky (1934), concepts are neither static but are instead developed. A concept is not completed by the acquisition of a new word but begins its long process of development the moment consciousness meets this new word. Concepts are

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a qualitatively new formation, which cannot be reduced to associative links between preexisting words (Vygotsky, 1934). In this way, psychological development does not consist of increasing the number of functions but rather to qualitatively transform elementary functions into higher functions (Vygotsky, 1934, 1978, 2012; Valsiner & Van der Veer, 2000; Wertsch, 1985, 1993). Vygotsky declares: ‘concepts do not live in isolation, they are not a static, frozen formation, but a process of formation that is intertwined in the vital and complex process of thinking’ (Vygotsky, 1934, p. 123). Concepts are living, dynamic and in permanent development and formation. This, given the emergence of new generalization processes, as well as the relationship that exists between the new concept and other already internalized and developing concepts during ontogeny. In this sense, there is a close relationship between concept formation and thought—and therefore, also inner speech. The new concept predisposes a network of old related specific concepts. Each new concept opens up possibilities for thought, though they are also restricted by the boundaries of the concept itself. From this perspective, taking the new concept as a starting point, it becomes possible to anticipate how thought might move—within a range of possibilities—as it relates and integrates to the previous network of internalized concepts (Vygotsky, 1934, 2012). This is another argument in favour of conceiving the formation of concepts as a core aspect in the development of thought and inner speech (Ramos & López, 2015). In Vygotsky’s words: ‘The development of the semantic aspect of language is the fundamental and decisive process in the development of thought and language’ (Vygotsky, 1934, p. 284). In this reference, it is appreciated how Vygotsky links the development of the meaning of the word with the development of thought and inner speech in human experience. The level of formation of the concepts is directly linked to the flow of thought. The development in the significance of the word will allow greater or lesser levels of abstraction and generalization in the act of thinking. From Vygotsky’s perspective, a concept formation is always an act of generalization, and in this development the concept advances from a starting structure of generalization to even more advanced ones (Vygotsky, 1934), thus evidencing the microgenetic development of concepts. That is, in Vygotsky’s sense, ‘the action of thinking is a generalization of generalization’ (Vygotsky, 1934, p.  267). On the other hand, the semantic and syntactic structure of inner speech also relates directly to the concepts and to the flow of thought. In this sense, thought transitions through the different forms that inner speech takes and, also, according to the degree of development of the meaning of the word. In this sense, the formation of concepts—the genetic development of the meaning of the word—advances from areas of less generalization to areas of greater generalization and abstraction, while the trajectories of thought take place in a time line comprising all possible directions. The emergence of a concept in the flow of thought does not constitute a quantitative addition of ideas or associations, but rather a new quality in thought, a new

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complex totality in the act of thinking. The concepts acquired are integrated with other concepts in thought, thus generating a new quality—the emergence of a qualitatively different novelty in thought. That is, the transitions and the flow of thought advance in a vertical axis—up and down—in which the development of concepts allows for the increasing levels of abstraction and generalization of thought. The genetic development of concepts and transitions of thought make the process of thinking an unlimited and infinite process, a hierarchical integration. The trajectories of thought are infinite and limitless. Each new level in the development of a concept encompasses the lower levels as well. Nonetheless, the development of meaning may advance to such high levels that it becomes hard to discern the relationship to the lower levels within the same concept (Vygotsky, 1934, 1978, 2012). This is the emergence of a new holistic and total unity of the word’s meaning. Peirce (1892) called this process unlimited semiosis, in order to refer to the dialogical and dialectical relationship between meanings, which allows the creation of a complex network of generalization and abstraction in thought (Vygotsky, 1934). When Vygotsky states that the concept does not end with the acquisition of the word, he proposes that the concept is dynamic and has a genetic and historical development in consciousness. This means that the relationship between the concept and the word is complex, and not the same at all times. In experience, people can acquire the concept without having a word for it—that is, the pre-reflective phenomenological experience of the concept. This occurs when a person understands a concept, but does not know the word for its mediation and expression in vocalized speech. In childhood, for example, we can often observe that children understand concepts, but do not possess the required verbal development to express it in words or define it. On the other hand, in certain moments along onto and microgenetic development, we may also observe that we have acquired the word but not yet the concept for it—or may have internalized the word accompanied by a very primitive development of the concept. This is, when we know the words but not their meaning and even less about the verbal context for their correct use in phrases and sentences. In Vygotsky’s words: ‘The formation of concepts presupposes learning to master the course of one’s own psychic processes through words or signs’ (Vygotsky, 1934, p.  134). This refers to the functional use of the sign. The formation of concepts evidences the ability to use the sign as a mediator of experience, which allows the microgenetic development of inner speech and the flow of thought at different levels of abstraction and generalization. The concepts, by maintaining a historical relationship with consciousness, that is, an order of antiquity and a psychological context in a certain individual’s consciousness, present different levels of significance. The levels of abstraction and generalization of concepts—and further increments in the genetic development of their significance—allow an inner (and also vocalized) speech that is loaded with sense. The level of development of concepts is also directly related to their expression in corporeality. An example of this can be found in the iconic and metaphorical gestures described by McNeill (1992). While iconic gestures directly represent what

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is said in words (e.g. gesture of taking off the hat or of a person walking), metaphorical gestures have no direct relationship with the word, since corporeality does not suffice to express the complexity of verbal meanings. In this sense, there is a direct relationship between concept formation, inner speech and gestures.

2.3  The Affective Matrix of the Mind One of Vygotsky’s main theoretical approaches is the attribution of a central role to affect the constitution of the psyche (Vygotsky, 1934, 1978, 2004, 2006, 2012, among others). In his work, he proposes the affective sphere as an articulator of cognitive processes and of the whole psychological experience (Madrigal Pérez, Fossa, & Barros, 2020). In several occasions throughout his career, Vygotsky looked for the unit of analysis that would integrate psychological experience into a complex unit. Thereby, he openly challenged the notion of cognition as a sum of independent elements to be studied separately or in isolation. In this regard, his criticism of modern psychology—which attempted to strip psychological processes to pieces—was well known. From Vygotsky’s perspective, different psychological processes establish a complex dynamic and dialectical relationship, one of the permanent intersections and bifurcations at each moment of microgenetic and ontogenetic development (Vygotsky, 1934). Thus, in the last manuscripts of his life, Vygotsky came to coin the notion of meaning, a concept that has been of utmost importance to the cultural-historical tradition and psychology in general. In Vygotsky’s work, meaning constitutes the unit of analysis between language and thought. Meaning is language, since it is directly related to the word. Yet, at the same time, it is also thought—since it is related to the semantic aspect and resonates with different areas of consciousness (Vygotsky, 1934). In the last passages of his work Thought and Language, Vygotsky states that ‘Meaning is merely a stone in the building of sense’ (Vygotsky, 1934, p. 333). With this, he takes a stance towards a greater integrative psychological unit, one that sits at the base of the whole psychological functioning and that considers both its cognitive and affective aspects (Fossa, Madrigal Pérez, & Muñoz Marcotti, 2019). If meaning is the integrating unit of analysis between thought and language, then sense is the integrating unit between the affective sphere of consciousness and the whole psychological organization. Sense integrates the affective aspects of consciousness to a greater extent than meaning, which is further away from affectivity (Fossa et al., 2019). Sense is the inter-functional unit of consciousness, which enables the integration of all psychological processes. Language, thought, imagination, memory and creativity, among others, are all directly linked to a greater structure of sense, which is also the basis of subjectivity. Thus, this way of studying psychological processes, interpersonal processes and human development directly entails the study of the

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construction of sense. This process is expressed in the verbal meanings—both internal and external—that are developed dynamically across our lives, and it is also expressed bodily.

2.3.1  The Three Stages of Research in Cognitive Processes There have been three clearly identifiable stages in the empirical study of human thought and cognitive processes. First, the participant was an observer of his own thought processes. This stage begins with the Würzburg school and has been called introspectionist, since it uses introspection as the main method for the study of cognition (Danziger, 1980; Fossa, 2018). Research carried out from this perspective consists mainly of asking the participant to report on the cognitive-intellectual process carried out to solve a certain task (Danziger, 1980; Gillespie & Zittoun, 2010). In a second moment, researchers started taking a more active role in experimental contexts. This meant interviewing participants at all times and delving into their cognitive activities as they unfolded during a task (Danziger, 1980; Gillespie & Zittoun, 2010; Fossa, 2019). In this second stage, the role of the researcher was fundamental, as it consisted of an active inquiry of the participant’s cognitive processes. An example of this type of research is a strategy called the video-assisted interview (Halford & Sanders, 1990; Waldron & Cegala, 1992), in which researchers conduct an interview while participants are watching their recorded performance of the laboratory task. This allows for a simultaneous prospective and retrospective observation of the psychological functions. In both of these previous moments, introspection upholds its status as the research method of excellence. It is the participants who, through their own cognitive acts and their own meanings, present their subjectivity to the researcher. However, these procedures have received criticism because of the bias that the involvement of working memory could introduce—and also because they are reelaboration of events that may have been perceived differently as they took place originally (Gillespie & Zittoun, 2010). So, a third moment in the history of research consisted in employing tasks that enable the observation of cognitive processes in action, without dependence on reflection nor intervention by the same participants (Vygotsky, 1934; Luria, 1979/1995). That is, to focus observations on the cognitive processes at work, as opposite to their recollection. Some examples of this type of experimentation have been the tachistoscopic presentation by Werner (1956), the strategy of the fourth excluded (Luria, 1979/1995) and the method of double stimulation (Vygotsky, 1934), among others. The tachistoscopic presentation consists of presenting the participants with different words on a monitor—some are known and others unknown—starting from an exposure time of 20 milliseconds. With each interval, the exposure time is increased until the stimulus is fully visible to the participants. After every exposure, the participants are asked to verbalize all the thoughts elicited by the stimulus (see Werner,

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1956). This procedure was employed by Werner to observe the organismic involvement occurring alongside the phenomenon of perception (Werner & Kaplan, 1963), while recent studies have also used it to explore the flow of thought and its relationship to gestures on a microgenetic level. The task of the fourth excluded consists of showing participants four cards with images of objects. Of the objects presented, three are related to each other and belong to some overall category, while the one that is left does not belong to it. Participants are asked to discard the object that does not belong to the category that the others do and explain why that object does not belong to the group (Luria, 1979/1995). Lastly, a final way to approach the study of concepts is through the method of double stimulation (Vygotsky, 1934). In this type of tasks, the participants are presented with figures of varying colour, shape, weight and size. These pieces have a nonsense word written on one of their sides. At the beginning of the procedure, all the figures are presented on a table and are thoroughly mixed in front of the participant. The researcher then asks the participants to group the figures that ‘go together’ or are somehow related. In this setting, the participant only has access to the structural information of the figures—shape, size and colour—and to the meaningless word written on the back. As the number of mistakes in the selection of figures increases, the participants start acquiring the rules to discover the features to which nonsense words refer. This procedure evidences the cognitive processes ‘in action’ as participants solve the task—without relying on verbal-conceptual definitions. Based on these empirical currents, recent studies have aimed to create experimental designs with the sensitivity to distinguish the bodily and verbal response to stimuli that elicit thoughts of different natures—or forms of inner speech (Fossa, 2019; Fossa, Awad, et al., 2018). As mentioned earlier in the chapter, inner speech can be considered as a phenomenon that unfolds within the deliberate-spontaneous continuum of thought. Therefore, it can be attributed both a problem-­solving function (Vygotsky, 1934; Piaget, 1923) and an expressive function of the motives at the basis of consciousness (Bühler, 1934). In relation to the idea of observing cognitive processes in action, it becomes relevant to introduce and highlight the notion of completion by Vygotsky (1934) as the basis for the works presented in this chapter. Vygotsky argues that thought is neither represented nor expressed by words but is born or emerges through them. As of this, one of the central premises of his theory materializes, according to which the word is the part of the process at which cognitive action culminates. Therefore, the methodology of the following studies aims to capture the development process of live experience—until its completion—through language and gestures.

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2.3.2  W  hat Can Gestures Tell Us About the Vygotskyan Findings? In a first laboratory study, participants were asked to indicate every thought that a visual and auditory stimulus elicited after its presentation (Fossa, 2019). After experiencing the stimulus, the participants reported their entire experience in front of it, without the intervention of the researcher. The entire procedure was recorded and videotaped to capture the gestural field of action used in McNeil’s (1992) studies. The participants were positioned in a chair in front of the monitor, and different high-definition cameras captured broad footage of the face, chest and hands, while others focused exclusively on the face. This study made it possible to understand the forms of thought activity—verbal, in pictures, task-oriented, among others—and observe the gestural movements that the participants made during the presentation of the stimuli. In another study, the video-assisted interview technique was used (Halford & Sanders, 1990; Waldron & Cegala, 1992). As part of this second study, the participants were shown their own videotaped exposure to the stimulus and were asked to recall and comment on their internal thoughts or thought acts at different times of the recording (Fossa, 2019; Fossa, Awad, et  al., 2018). The use of this technique implicated that the researcher had an active role in the laboratory, which first consisted of presenting the stimuli and recording the participants’ responses and later of interviewing the participants while asking them to watch the recording. The results of this study showed the different forms of inner speech associated with different nonverbal movements of the body, as can be appreciated in the following figures (see Fossa, 2019). In the video extract of Fig. 2.1, the participant refers ‘At that moment an image of opening came to my mind, a sensation of oceanity, like something sublime…’ At this moment the participant gives an account of a sensory or sensitive experience with an organismic-physiognomic involvement in Werner’s sense (Werner, 1955, 1956; Werner & Kaplan, 1963). In Fig. 2.2, the participant refers the following: ‘At that moment I imagined a day dawning, with a mountain and falling water, perfect for a xxxxx (purified water)

Fig. 2.1  Static position, gaze fixated downwards

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Fig. 2.2  Static position, gaze fixated downwards

Fig. 2.3  Iterative gesture, the hand fluctuates over the mouth from one side to the other

commercial’. In this excerpt, as in Fig. 2.2, the experience of inner speech is diffuse, loaded with sensations, without cognitive control, with a high affective load and largely composed by mental images. On the contrary, at other moments of the procedure, it was possible to observe a different form of inner speech, with greater cognitive control and direction of thought, and with verbal meanings that were easy to externalize through vocalized speech, as exemplified by the participant in Fig. 2.3: ‘In that part I was thinking about why I might have imagined a family, with goblins behind, I was trying to think why I might have imagined something bad…’. In this extract, the participant reports on inner speech that is oriented to problem-­ solving, with cognitive-intellectual control, with less affective load and less presence of images. The nonverbal movements present in this extract are iterative—the hand moves over the mouth from one side to the other. It is a repetitive movement that expresses the search for meaning and cognitive control. Another example of this is Fig. 2.4, in which the participant expresses: ‘There, at that moment, I was like remembering what happened to me with the stimulus, and I thought that as the

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Fig. 2.4  Oscillating gaze, eye movements in different directions

music progressed, I was getting increasingly uneasy… And I realized that in the end I was already afraid, to be honest’. This excerpt shows a control of thought that is accompanied by a static position of the body, but with an oscillating gaze. That is, saccadic eye movements, which account for the search for meaning and control of thought. In a subsequent study, we sought out to establish a correlation between the forms of inner speech and the expressive manifestation of gestures during a musical stimulus (see Fossa, Awad, et al., 2018). Fifty university students were invited to a laboratory procedure in which they were asked to listen to an instrumental music and log in every thought elicited by it. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the results of this procedure showed the following. In the first place, the results evidence the existence of a voluntary control of thought, characterized by oscillating gaze (0.755), intermediate eye constraint (0.445), denotative language (0.436), voluntary language (0.644), self-directed language (0.874), present tense (0.769) and frown contraction (0.337). This form of inner speech is characterized by being denotative and voluntary, with a conscious directionality that accounts for a cognitive search. This form is expressed through sudden gestures, an oscillating gaze, an intermediate eye contraction (the eyelids close together, but the gaze remains oscillating) and moments of elevation of the gaze, together with a contraction of the mouth and frown. This form of inner speech has been associated with reasoning and problem-solving, a function classically attributed to inner speech in the works of Piaget (1923), Vygotsky (1934) and in contemporary studies on the phenomenon (Damianova, Lucas, & Sullivan, 2012; Dasilveira & Gomes Barbosa, 2012; Roberts, 2008; Villagrán, Navarro, López, & Alcalde, 2002; among others). The second form of inner speech has been described as cognitive effort, characterized by iterative movements (0.694), head movement of denial (0.749) or head movements of assent (0.653). This form of inner speech shares the controlled, directed towards oneself and denotative character—though with less explicit content—which accounts for a cognitive effort. This form of inner speech, unlike the previous one, does not have an evident content, but rather has the subject engaged in the search for a linguistic sign while being dominated by global spheres of

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meaning. The word does not appear in the internal dialogue, but is being searched for in an effortful manner. According to the dataset of this study, this type of inner speech emerges during episodes of forgetting and the subsequent efforts made to remember—or during the search for a word that is known but does not appear in consciousness when required. This form of inner speech is expressed through iterative gestures, forced eye contraction and movements of assent and denial. Furthermore, it is characterized by denotative inner speech and wilfulness in the execution of thought that is oriented towards the search for a concept—though without the development of thought itself. This form of expression gives an account of a cognitive process that is directed, voluntary and intentional, with denotative content and an expressive bodily manifestation. Finally, the analyses carried out in this study indicated a third form of inner speech, that we have called physiognomic-organismic language, characterized by a lost gaze (0.308), total eye contraction (0.308), expressive language (0.576), with a high presence of affect (0.597) and involuntary (0.635). This form of inner speech is characterized by the presence of spherical and diffuse contents, a greater presence of mental images and a vivid affective involvement. This is an involuntary type of language, which emerges at certain points of experience and is not controlled by the individual. It manifests in the body through a static position, a fixation of the gaze in a look that appears to be lost and contractions of the mouth. On occasions, this phenomenon is accompanied by a complete yet not forced eye contraction—which evidences a self-absorbed behaviour that is connected to a vividly felt inner experience. In a related matter, another study looked to investigate the flow of thought through the use of musical stimuli from a qualitative point of view. An instrumental music was played with sudden interruptions in which the participants were asked to report on their thoughts at the moment. The song utilized was Silence by Ludwig Van Beethoven. An instrumental song was selected so as to avoid having the thoughts of the participants be directed by lyrical contents. The first surprise cut was made at minute 1:10 and had 10 seconds of blank space. The second cut was made at minute 2:10 and had 15 seconds of blank space. In each sudden cut of the music, the researcher asked the question: What were you thinking at this time? One of the study participants expressed: ‘The image of like a river came to me (moves his extended right hand as if “stroking” something in the air), as in relation to (moves his hand mimicking the form of a wave)… (3 seconds in silence) how do I say it? (He puts his hands together and brings them to his face) Like… I don’t know if music, but… (He continues to move his hands as if stroking something) I don’t know how to explain it… like something fluid’. The results of this study show how the sphere of meaning first appears in a sensory form, before it is mediated by the word. In this case, the participant has the sensation of something fluid, smooth and in movement and expresses it with the movement of his hand, while making a cognitive effort to find the meaning verbally. In a final study, the tachistoscopic presentation was used (Werner, 1956; Werner & Kaplan, 1963). Fifty undergraduate university students were invited to a laboratory procedure, who previously signed an informed consent. Each participant was

2  What Can Gestures Tell Us About Vygotsky’s Findings?

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requested to report on all their thoughts after each application of the tachistoscope. The application was divided into two phases: In the first instance (Phase A), an invented word was applied, Budraf, following Werner’s experiment (Werner, 1956), and in the second instance (Phase B), a short phrase was applied ‘The day is sunny.’ The analysis of the recording was carried out by segmenting the video into small time frames of 5 seconds. Four judges were trained in the protocol of verbal and nonverbal categories, who coded the data. Interjudge reliability analysis was performed using Kappa’s coefficient to determine consistency between coders (Kappa  =  0.84, p