Articles

Traditionally, neuropsychology has focused on identifying the brain mechanisms of specific psychological processes, such as attention, motor skills, perception, memory, language, and consciousness, as well as their corresponding disorders. However, there are psychological processes that have received little attention in this field, such as dreaming. This study examined the clinical and experimental neuropsychological research relevant to dreaming, ranging from sleep disorders in patients with brain damage, to brain functioning during REM sleep, using different methods of brain imaging. These findings were analyzed within the framework of Luria’s Three Functional Unit Model of the Brain, and a proposal was made to explain certain of the essential characteristics of dreaming. This explanation describes how, during dreaming, an activation of the First Functional Unit occurs, comprising the reticular formation of the brainstem; this activates, in turn, the Second Functional Unit — which is formed by the parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes and Unit L, which is comprised of the limbic system, as well as simultaneous hypo-functioning of the Third Functional Unit (frontal lobe). This activity produces a perception of hallucinatory images of various sensory modes, as well as a lack of inhibition, a non-selfreflexive thought process, and a lack of planning and direction of such oneiric images. Dreaming is considered a type of natural confabulation, similar to the one that occurs in patients with frontal lobe damage or schizophrenia. The study also suggests that the confabulatory, bizarre, and impulsive nature of dreaming has a function in the cognitiveemotional homeostasis that aids proper brain function throughout the day.

The aims of this paper are: 1) to show the role of clinical experience for the theoretical contributions of L.S. Vygotsky, and 2) to analyze the development of these theories in contemporary applied neuropsychology. An analysis of disturbances of mental functioning is impossible without a systemic approach to the evidence observed. Therefore, medical psychology is fundamental for forming a systemic approach to psychology. The assessment of neurological patients at the neurological hospital of Moscow University permitted L.S. Vygotsky to create, in collaboration with A.R. Luria, the theory of systemic dynamic localization of higher mental functions and their relationship to cultural conditions. In his studies of patients with Parkinson’s disease, Vygotsky also set out 3 steps of systemic development: interpsychological, then extrapsychological, then intrapsychological. L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria in the late 1920s created a program to compensate for the motor subcortical disturbances in Parkinson’s disease (PD) through a cortical (visual) mediation of movements. We propose to distinguish the objective mediating factors — like teaching techniques and modalities — from subjective mediating factors, like the individual’s internal representation of his/her own disease. The cultural-historical approach in contemporary neuropsychology forces neuropsychologists to re-analyze and re-interpret the classic neuropsychological syndromes; to develop new assessment procedures more in accordance with the patient’s conditions of life; and to reconsider the concept of the social brain as a social and cultural determinant and regulator of brain functioning. L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria proved that a defect interferes with a child’s appropriation of his/her culture, but cultural means can help the child overcome the defect. In this way, the cultural-historical approach became, and still is, a methodological basis for remedial education.

The steadily increasing demand for artistic professions brings to the fore the task of studying the phenomenon of art by researching the unique capacity of the human brain to create works of art in different spheres of creative activity. So far, only a few studies have investigated creativity-related brain activity in representatives of the creative professions. The aim of the empirical research was to study the neurophysiological correlates of artistic image creation by representatives of the artistic professions. The participants were 60 right-handed females aged 23-27, divided into three groups— artists (23 people), actors (17 people), and specialists who do not work in an artistic field (20 people). The mono-typing technique was used to model the creative artistic process. EEG signals were recorded in a resting state, and during four stages of the creation of an artistic image (viewing of monotypes, frustration, image creation, and thinking over the details) from 21 electrodes set on the scalp according to the International 10-20 System. We analyzed EEG coherence for each functional trial at theta (4.00–8.00 Hz), alpha1 (8.00–10.5 Hz), alpha2 (10.5–13.00 Hz), and beta (13.00– 35.00 Hz) frequency bands. For statistical analysis, we used MANOVA and post hoc analysis. We found that the neurophysiological correlates of creating an artistic image are different at different stages of the creative process, and have different features for artists and actors. The actors primarily show dominance of right hemisphere activity, while close interaction of the hemispheres distinguishes the brains of the artists. The differences revealed in brain cortex functioning when artists or actors create an artistic image reflect different strategies of imaginative creative work by representatives of these professions.

Investigators are finding increasing evidence for cross-cultural specificity in face cognition along with individual characteristics. The functions on which face cognition is based not only are types of general cognitive functions (perception, memory) but are elements of specific mental processes. Face perception, memorization, correct recognition of faces, and understanding the information that faces provide are essential skills for humans as a social species and can be considered as facets of social (cultural) intelligence. Face cognition is a difficult, multifaceted set of processes. The systems and processes involved in perceiving and recognizing faces are captured by several models focusing on the pertinent functions or including the presumably underlying neuroanatomical substrates. Thus, the study of face-cognition mechanisms is a cross-disciplinary topic. In Russia, Germany, and China there are plans to organize an interdisciplinary crosscultural study of face cognition. The first step of this scientific interaction is conducting psychological and psychophysiological studies of face cognition in multinational Russia within the frame of a grant supported by the Russian Science Foundation and devoted to “cross-cultural tolerance”. For that reason and in the presence of the huge diversity of data concerning face cognition, we suggest for discussion, specifically within the psychological scientific community, three aspects of face cognition: (1) psychophysiological (quantitative data), (2) developmental (qualitative data from developmental psychology), and (3) cross-cultural (qualitative data from cross-cultural studies). These three aspects reflect the different levels of investigations and constitute a comprehensive, multilateral approach to the problem. Unfortunately, as a rule, neuropsychological and psychological investigations are carried out independently of each other. However, for the purposes of our overview here, we assume that the main factors that could influence the developmental, individual psychophysiological, and cross-cultural differences in face cognition are not only biological but also social and cultural. One of the principal tasks of this article is to draw the attention of psychologists to the physiology of face processing and to draw the attention of neuroscientists to the psychology of face cognition. Thus, the main goal of the article is to instigate a discussion among social psychologists, psychophysiologists, and neuroscientists about the mechanisms of face cognition, which, as in a mirror, reflect the basic, fundamental “psychophysical” problem of psychophysiology.

L. S. Vygotsky in his famous methodological essay “The historical meaning of psychological crisis” (1928) emphasized the importance of studying any psychological process or state as a “whole” — that is, as characterized from the subjective and objective sides at the same time. This position is fully relevant for studying the human functional states (FSes). Today the objective psychophysiological diagnostics of human FSes in activities associated with a high risk of technological disasters (in nuclear-power plants, transportation, the chemical industry) are extremely relevant and socially important. This article reviews some new psychophysiological methods of FS assessment that are being developed in Russia and abroad and discusses different aspects of developing integral psychophysiological FS assessment. The emphasis is on distant methods of FS diagnostics: the bioradiolocation method, laser Doppler vibrometry, eye tracking, audio and video recordings, infrared thermography. The possibilities and limitations of the most popular emotion atlases — the Facial Affect Scoring Technique (FAST) and the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) — in developing distant visual-range and infrared-range systems for automated classification of facial expressions are analyzed. A special section of the article concentrates on the problem of constructing an integral psychophysiological FS index. Mathematical algorithms that provide a partition of FS indicators into different FS types are based on various methods of machine learning. We propose the vector approach for construction of complex estimations of the human FSes.

Psychology is now one of the most popular sciences for young students. But whether academic production or professional practice, it is still in crisis. When we look together at two different approaches we realize the enormous amount of syncretism. They are not only two different approaches to the same science. They are more than that, they are different areas of knowledge, with very different practical implications. Discussion of psychology with the other sciences researching the same "objects" is nonexistent. So when it comes to practice, many of young psychologists leave the profession.

This article is an invitation to colleagues for a "look inside" this interesting science that can make a significant contribution to human sciences and the better life of human beings in the 21st century. This call is supported by a re-reading of the text by Lev S. Vygotsky The historical meaning of the crisis in psychology written in 1927. The article is structured in four subtopics: the problem of general science (in Psychology), the problem of terminology, the problem of difficulty in recognizing the crisis and the problem of emptiness. Being a call, of course, it is not a complete and finished analysis. It is rather a desire that, engaging some colleagues, we can continue the dialogue with Vygotsky on this topic started by him ninety years ago.

Although Lev Vygotsky’s interpretation of human cognition was proposed almost one century ago, new scientific and technological advances have significantly supported many of his ideas and hypotheses. His cultural-historical theory of psychological processes, and his contributions to educational psychology, have continued growing without interruption. In this paper, three of Vygotsky’s hypotheses are examined in light of 21st century scientific developments:

1. The influence of cultural factors on human cognition. A diversity of research studies in different countries has corroborated the crucial impact of culture on cognitive test performance; 
2. The role of language in higher psychological processes. According to Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach, cognitive processes (“complex psychological processes”) are social in origin, but complex and hierarchical in their structure. Intrinsic to the systemic organization of higher cognitive processes is the engagement of external artifacts (objects, symbols, signs), which have an independent history of development within a culture; and 
3. The hypothesis that thought and general complex cognition is associated with certain “inner speech.” Some contemporary neuroimaging studies (particularly PET and fMRI) analyzing “inner speech” have been carried out. These studies have attempted to find the areas of the brain involved in “inner speech.” These scientific advances significantly support Vygotsky’s interpretation of human cognition. It has been found that inner speech depends on activity in Broca’s area and related brain network activity in the left hemisphere. Hence, inner speech is closely related to grammar, language production, and executive functions.

Vygotsky’s important contribution to the understanding of psychological processes has stimulated, and continues to stimulate, a substantial amount of research in this area.

This special issue of “Psychology in Russia: State of the Art” is dedicated to the 120^th anniversary of Lev Vygotsky, an outstanding Russian (Soviet) psychologist whose cultural-historical approach has given rise to numerous theoretical advances, empirical research and applied methods in psychology and education worldwide.

The goals set forth in regulatory documents for the development of Russian education presuppose quantitative evaluation of factors and conditions that ensure students’ achievement of high competence, personality development, and self-realization. Evaluation of intellectual and personality characteristics of first-year university students and study of the relationship among these characteristics thus become important tasks.

The research objective was to evaluate relationships among social and abstractlogical types of intelligence, personality characteristics, and exam effectiveness (performance).

The study sample was made up of 900 first-year university students (55.2% female and 44.8% male) from Tomsk State University who filled in paper-and-pencil forms in Russian: The Evaluation of Choice in Conflict Situations Questionnaire, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, the Self-Organization of Activity, the Reflexivity Type Assessment Test, the Self-Determination Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the World Assumptions Scale. Scores on the Unified National Examination in Mathematics (UNE in Mathematics) and the first exam results at the university were used to measure academic performance. The data were statistically processed using descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and factor analysis.

The preference for compromising and collaborating strategies indicates a high level of social intelligence and contributes to socio-psychological adaptation of young people to conditions of university education that are new to them, which require greater independence and activity. Social intelligence and abstract-logical intelligence are relatively independent intelligence types.

Social intelligence and personality characteristics are not determinants of scores on the UNE in Mathematics. Probably the process of educating students in mathematics in the graduating classes of Russian secondary schools is replaced by training to solve problems on the UNE, so that students’ individual characteristics in preparation for the test are no longer factors that influence exam effectiveness. A disparity between social and abstract-logical types of intelligence is accompanied by low academic effectiveness. Proportional development of social and abstract-logical types of intelligence may be an important factor in achieving high academic effectiveness.

In the modern world, the environment of any educational institution represents a spectrum of ethnic groups and subcultures: a multicultural educational environment. Pupils who are aware of their national identity often demonstrate intolerance toward students of other nationalities, which threatens pupils’ psychological safety. In this article, we present the results of pilot research examining the level of a pupil’s psychological safety in the multicultural educational environment and identifying the criteria that influence a pupil’s psychological safety. The research sample comprised 127 pupils aged 13–14 years from different schools living in various places that differed by the type of settlement, industrial development and level of science and culture. We isolated the following criteria for a pupil’s psychological safety in the multicultural educational environment: satisfaction with the educational environment, protection from psychological abuse and self-confidence. According to pupils, the essential characteristics of safety in the educational environment, regardless of school category and type, are being able to ask for help, protection of personal dignity, interactions with other students, and self-respect.

Empirical data reveal the current status of the psychological safety of the entire sample group (n = 127) and compare indices of psychological safety in the educational institutions under study.

Analysis of the results of our research indicates that protecting a pupil’s personality in the multicultural educational environment has the greatest influence on his/her psychological safety. In addition, a comfortable psychological atmosphere, mutual aid and support of pupils and low levels of classmates’ and coevals’ aggression positively influence the protection experience.

This article sets forth the main results of a study analyzing attitudes toward psychoactivesubstance (PAS) effects. These findings demonstrate the conditionality of social, historic, and cultural views of PAS effects. Despite the threat posed by increasing high school and university students’ drug involvement, exploration of this phenomenon in the format of scientific discourse has been limited so far.

In 2014–2015, in Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and Krasnoyarsk a survey to evaluate perceptions of high school and university students about PAS effects was conducted (289 respondents, aged 16–22).The methods used included the semantic differential (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test modified by A.G. Shmelyov), a modified version of the Rokeach Value Survey, word associations, and content analysis.

The use of psychoactive substances is a specific social practice emerging in a certain social context that includes both drug-addicted and PAS-free young people. Examination of the factors affecting the formation of views about PAS effects and the dynamics of youth values is possible by using a bio-psycho-socio paradigm for performing a complex analysis of cognitive, behavioral, and value parameters.

As documented in the respondents’ perceptions, distinctive features that are characteristic of drug addicts and that are seen in their behavior area loss of control over behavior, emotions, and volition; changes in value systems; and a tendency to develop a manipulative communication style.

Within the system of their social perceptions the respondents endowed drug-addicted persons with pronounced negative characteristics (“aggressiveness,” “addiction,” “stupidity,” “light-mindedness”). Still, they stated that drug abusers are capable of being active, decisive, cheerful, generous, and flexible. The value analysis demonstrated that terminal values appreciated by the school and university students included health, true friends, love, happy family life, active life, and self-development. Receiving pleasure through methamphetamine intake and a burst of energy through PAS intake were considered worthless even though the survey demonstrated the respondents’ use of psychoactive substances.

It is well-known that communication is the main source and necessity of human development and activity. It promotes social relationships, self-image and a wide range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Preschoolers communicate both with their peers and adults. It is traditionally assumed that peer communication greatly depends on the teacher-child interaction, leading role of the adult, and the child’s own activity, which are the main elements of the Russian preprimary education system.

Changes in social situations, reductions in available play time, greater engagement of children in activities and many other factors can affect modern preschoolers’ peer communication. Therefore, the effect of teacher-directed and child-directed teacherchild interactions on preschoolers’ peer communication important to study.

The following methods were applied: peer-communication observation, the behavioral tests ‘Magic room’ and ‘Mosaic’, and the sociometric procedure ‘Two houses’. The sample included 49 Moscow preprimary students aged 4 to 6 year old (25 girls and 24 boys).

The research proved that preschoolers showed better results in child-directed interactions, such as playing skills, compared with a similar situation in which the children were directed by the teachers. Additionally, the level of proactiveness, communication success, conflict resolution, prosocial behavior and emotional response to peer influence did not differ among children.

Thus, the child-directed approach is more beneficial to preschoolers’ communication development than a teacher-directed approach.

Determination of the personality’s psychological resources that ensure its resilience to negative effects of the social environment is a priority problem in modern society, science, and education, since we currently see a sharp increase in the number of factors that affect psychological hardiness and security. One of these is intensification of violent and aggressive forms of interaction in educational institutions. Such manifestations are especially dangerous in schools, since, by virtue of their age-specific features, students are the most vulnerable and they subsequently translate the acquired values and behaviors to society as a whole. The goal of this empirical study was to identify teenagers’ psychological resources that determine their resilience to various forms of psychological violence in the educational environment. The study covered four St. Petersburg high schools, with 437 teenagers aged from 16.5 to 17 (189 boys and 248 girls). A questionnaire was developed to divide the subjects into groups with high and low levels of protection (security) against psychological violence in the educational environment. The questionnaire lists forms of psychological violence in the educational environment (identified by theoretical review) that can occur in interpersonal communication between peers and between teachers and students. The respondents evaluated each item of the questionnaire in accordance with the proposed scale of frequency with which each form of violence occurred. Theoretical analysis determined that psychological violence is traumatic for the adolescent personality’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral spheres. The teenagers’ psychological resources of resilience to violence in the educational environment were identified with the aid of psychodiagnostic methods addressing each of them. Our study allows us to conclude that the resources that ensure the teenager’s resilience to the negative effect of psychological violence in the educational environment are: satisfaction with oneself, accepting oneself as a personality with positive and socially desirable characteristics; high level of self-control, well- developed ability to behave in an acceptable way whatever the circumstances; openness and goodwill, self-confidence; perception of the surrounding world as friendly and generous, which gives rise to friendly behavior; holistic perception of the world, experiencing the present moment in one’s life in its entirety, striving for personal development and self-improvement; independence of values and behavior from external factors; significance of such values as achievement, self-development, and high financial position, in combination with a priority on learning and education; explanation as a typical mechanism of psychological protection, search for a reasonable basis for justifying behavior and actions as well as impulsive acts; low level of anxiety, aggressiveness, and rigidity. The results obtained can be useful for researching the resource-oriented approach to psychology, and also for the development of follow-up techniques for ensuring the safety of the educational environment, preventing all forms of violence in interpersonal interaction between students and teachers.

The high level of stress in modern society poses a need to study family factors and resources for the development of children’s defense mechanisms in the current social environment. This study investigates correlations between maternal and child psychological defense mechanisms, using interviews, a structured clinical survey, projective drawing, and a projective game. Analysis of data from 240 people (120 children and 120 mothers) revealed specifics of the formation of psychological defense mechanisms among children aged 4 to 12 years in child-mother relationships. We suggest that maternal and child defense mechanisms have some isomorphic traits, but the level and quality of isomorphism changes with each age period of the child. Certain defensive mechanisms of mother and child appear with the same frequency. The child’s gender influences the correlation between the mother’s and child’s psychological defense mechanisms. Initially, children are more likely to directly copy defense mechanisms observed from the mother’s behavior. As they grow older, they use defenses that they have learned consciously. Based on empirical data, we also found a correlation between the maturity of the maternal psychological defense mechanisms and specifics of child psychological defense mechanisms. We propose that the maturity of maternal psychological defense mechanisms has the greatest meaning for child psychological defense mechanisms at the earliest stages of ontogenesis — it provides consistency between the mother’s own psychological defense mechanisms and the psychological defense mechanisms that she teaches her child.

This article examines psychological predictors of inhibition in educational environments as well as various aspects of pedagogical communication, including facilitation, which is aimed at enhancing educational effectiveness and developing students by means of using a particular communication style and the teacher’s personality. The need to study inhibition (the deterioration of teacher-children interactions; the negation of a student’s individuality; the inability to understand and accept students’ viewpoints; teacher-provoked conflicts; and emotional callousness) is substantiated. The essence of psychological predictors as independent variables, changes in which lead to changes in other dependent variables, allowing the prediction of inhibition development, is explained.

The research objective was to identify psychological predictors of the development of inhibition in pedagogical communication.

An empirical study was conducted using standardized techniques for diagnosing communicative attitudes (V. Boyko), developing general communicative tolerance (V. Boyko), identifying aggressiveness (A. Asinger), identifying the level of empathy (V. Boyko), and identifying the degree of pedagogical inhibition (L. Polosova). The sample contained 375 teachers from Yekaterinburg educational institutions, with participant selection made using stratified sampling.

The teacher’s personality features (a negative communicative attitude, low communicative tolerance and empathy, and higher levels of aggression) were shown to be key predictors of inhibition, which itself was found to depend on the length of teaching experience. At the beginning of one’s professional teaching career, the level of inhibition is minimal. However, the level of inhibition reaches its maximum level after 5-10 years of teaching, and after 20 years, there is a sharp decrease in the level of inhibition.

The conclusion of this study stresses the importance of developing strategies to prevent and correct inhibition, which is especially essential for school teachers with 5-10 years of experience.

Contemporary psychological and pedagogical studies pay special attention to the socialization of physically impaired children, inclusive education and methods of providing such children with a safe environment to assist in their development. However, difficulties in interpersonal communication experienced by children with health impairments have remained beyond the research scope. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of communication difficulties in typically developed teenagers aged 12-13 years (n = 100) and the problems faced by their peers with visual (n = 30), auditory (n = 30), speech (n = 25) and motor (n = 15) impairments. Actual communication difficulties in teenagers were studied in two ways: the subjective component of impaired communication was registered through a content analysis of a sentence completion test and the objective manifestations of impaired communication were identified through expert evaluation of children’s communicative behavior (educators and psychologists who had been in close contact with the teenagers acted as experts).

First, the authors identified typical standard communication problems that were characteristic of teenagers aged 12-13 years, that is, problems with aggression, tolerance, the ability to admit wrongdoing and make concessions, empathy, self-control, self-analysis and self-expression in communication. Second, typical communication difficulties characteristic of physically impaired children were revealed: failure to understand meaning; feelings of awkwardness and shame of oneself; expectations of a negative attitude toward oneself; gelotophobia; and manifestations of despotism, petulance and egotism as defensive reactions in situations of impaired communication. Third, the authors described specific communication difficulties in teenagers with auditory, visual, speech and motor impairments.

The research literature suggests that institutions for children left without parental care do not provide environments that adequately promote children’s development, and that characteristics of orphanages should be considered as an environmental factor influencing developmental difficulties in children living in institutions and later in post-institutional families. This study aimed to analyze the structural characteristics of the caregiving environment in two St. Petersburg (RF) orphanages—baby homes for children from birth to 4–5 years of age (BH A and BH B), and the maintenance of the structural interventions that were implemented in BH A during 2000-05 (The St. Petersburg–USA Orphanage Research Team, 2008). Both institutions belong to the Ministry of Health and are managed under the same medical regulations, providing about the same quality of medical care and nutrition. The results of the study show that the number of children living in each ward (4 to 6 in BH A and 5 to 8 in BH B), and the child–caregiver ratio (2 to 3 for BH A and 2.5 to 4 for BH B) in the two baby homes are about the same, while BH A have fewer staff members who are assigned to the ward (6–8 vs. 9–14 in BH B). The ward assistant teachers in BH A are assigned as the primary caregivers, working 5 days a week (39 hrs) vs. about 25 hrs a week for assistant teachers in BH B. While living in the baby home, children in BH A are integrated by age and disability (vs. segregation by age and partial disability integration in BH B), and are assigned to one ward (meaning the same caregivers, peers, rooms, etc.), while in BH B the children change their ward when they reach a certain age or developmental milestone (number of wards children experienced M(SD) = 1.1 (0.2) in BH A and 2.7 (1.1) in BH B). Our results support the hypothesis that the structural characteristics of institutional environment in the two baby homes are different, and that in comparison with BH B, the structural characteristics of BH A show more caregiving stability and consistency. The results also show that the interventions implemented in BH A within the St. Petersburg–USA Orphanage Research Project were maintained for many years after the project was finished. The specific features of an institutional caregiving environment should be taken into consideration in studies of the mental health and bio-behavioral development of children in institutions and postinstitutional families.

This article analyzes the influence of family structure on the hardiness of adolescents aged 16-18 (average age 17.2). The aim was to investigate hardiness of subjects from full, single-parent, and large families. We used the Test of Hardiness Survey and the Noetic Orientations Test (SZhO). The sample comprised 200 subjects, first year university students from families with different compositions: 75 were brought up in a full family, 75 in a one-parent family, and 50 in a large family. A one-way analysis of variance and repeated measures MANCOVA showed that the subjects differ both in their hardiness and the distinctive features of its development. The authors conclude that subjects from full families are less hardy than those from single-parent families, but more hardy than those from large families. Also the hardiness dynamics of children from full, single-parent, and large families differ. Adolescents from single-parent families increase their hardiness further, whereas in students from full families it decreases. This can be explained by specific ways that the students survive the crisis of adolescence. And finally, students from large families demonstrate a similar level of hardiness in comparison with students from full families. This can also be explained by specific ways that they survive the crisis of adolescence. Later, when this crisis is almost over, their hardiness becomes similar to that of students from full families, which has decreased by that time.

Understanding of the base-10 structure of multi-digit numbers is one of the critical aspects in early mathematics learning. It has been documented that children from different countries vary in their use of base-10 representations. Questions concerning potential sources of this variability have been debated for decades. One commonly posited explanation is that some languages provide explicit cues about the structure of multi-digit numbers, facilitating the development of base-10 representations. In the present study, we tested this view against an alternative view, positing that variability in children’s learning of numeric structure may reflect differences in their experiences with numbers. The study examined kindergartners and first-graders from four countries: Taiwan, South Korea, the USA, and Russia. Results showed that the use of base-10 representations by American first-graders increased dramatically over the last decades, following changes in curricular guidelines. First-graders across the four countries showed some differences in performance (however, not consistent with the language account), whereas kindergartners performed comparably despite the differences in their languages. The results suggest that the nature of early math instruction may be critical for children’s developing understanding of numeric structure.

The goal of the present study was to describe the organization of a guided activity for problem solution in primary school. The method, which was applied to mathematical problems, allowed us to propose a specific orientation for the proper solution of arithmetic problems by pupils. The study was based on the activity-theory approach applied to the process of teaching and learning. It was carried out with pupils in the second grade of a private school in the city of Puebla (Mexico). The method was used in the classroom during 30 school sessions of 1 hour per day. The methodology of formative experiment was used in the study. Qualitative analysis of the pedagogical process of teaching and learning was conducted. The results show that, after participation in the formative process, the schoolchildren became able to identify essential elements, data, and all relationships among them in order to solve mathematical problems. At the end of the program the verbal external level was raised for the process of orientation and the solution of problems together with the ability to use logarithms independently. We conclude that orientation, as a guided form of activity in primary school, is essential for the development of the ability to analyze problems.