While recognizing major contributions of the contemporary theory-of-mind framework, we identify conceptual and cultural gaps with respect to its inattention to deontic considerations. The framework has tended to portray behavior as purely self-directed, thereby neglecting everyday reasoners' understanding of behavior as normatively based. However,…

Piaget's emphasis on the invariant logic of growth and Vygotsky's emphasis on the centrality of culturally patterned dialog in enabling growth are possibly incommensurate. This incommensurability highlights two ways human beings make sense of the world, by means of logical necessity and of interpretive reconstruction of circumstances. (BC)

To bring out Giyoo Hatano's contributions to the understanding of culture and cognitive development, we note first his special style--thoughtful, inventive, and always focused on central issues and on combining theory with data--and then, for three areas, some of the conceptual advances he proposed. The areas have to do with ties between cognitive…

Examines Vygotsky's notion of two main lines of psychosocial development--the natural and the cultural--in light of contemporary Marxist debates concerning the relationship between the "material" and the "social." Argues that an adequate account of Vygotsky's theory must ground the social construction of cognition in a…

Questions Moll's assumption, in this issue, of a parallel between processes in Vygotsky's natural line and the "material" processes in Marxist theories. Disputes Moll's characterization of the natural line providing a kind of constraining framework within which the cultural line can operate, suggesting that the two enter into a…

Discusses the development of thinking from a sociocultural perspective, focusing on how Super and Harkness' (1986) concept of "developmental niche" may be used as a framework for organizing cognitive developmental research in relation to culture. Argues for the utility of this approach in furthering understanding of the precise linkages between…

The influence of language and familiarity with clay upon performance of traditional tasks involving conservation of quantity and weight was examined. Children from a village in which all the women are potters did not perform differently from their peers in a neighboring village on any task. (MS)

Agrees with Gellatly that sociocultural influences are important in children's cognitive development, but maintains Gellatly confounds the contents of beliefs with the processes of forming beliefs. Argues that, though content varies cross-culturally, children use similar processes to make distinctions related to cultural contents. Suggests that…

Focuses on the role of enculturation in children's cognitive development by distinguishing between, and elaborating upon, three factors: (1) cultural context; (2) cognitive contents; and (3) cognitive processes. Suggests problems inherent in positing homologies between children's cognitive development and the historical development of scientific…

Comments on Gauvain's discussion, in this issue, of the development of thinking from a sociocultural perspective, expanding her analysis by comparing research on apes who have developed in natural habitats with apes raised by humans in something resembling a human culture. Argues that the study of nonhuman primates can contribute to the emerging…

Claims that mind and mental objects form a societal mental structure enabling children to assimilate the society and become co-constructing members. Cites evidence that competence to create mental objects, symbols, and meanings separated from action is the evolutionary evolved human capacity for society and culture. Vygotsky's "natural"…

Summarizes the theory of psychological differentiation and reviews recent cross-cultural research on the roles of child rearing, culture, and ecology in the development of individual, group, and sex differences in the field dependence-field independence cognitive style component of psychological differentiation. (SS)

Uses example of racism to compare Vygotsky's and Piaget's perspectives on the development of mind within the framework of questions regarding the mutual influence of societies and individuals. Notes that Vygotsky emphasizes knowledge transmission from older to younger, whereas Piaget emphasizes construction of new knowledge with potential for…