Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) was a pioneering figure in psychology and cognitive science, whose sociocultural theory of mind fundamentally reshaped our understanding of human development and cognition. Working in the early Soviet era, Vygotsky emphasized that higher mental functions, such as reasoning, memory, and language, emerge through social interaction and cultural mediation rather than from isolated biological processes. Vygotsky also introduced the idea that language and thought develop through internalization. External social dialogues gradually become internal mental speech, forming the basis of reflective thinking and self-regulation. This dynamic view of cognition as a socially and linguistically mediated process influenced not only developmental psychology but also education, linguistics, and modern cognitive science. Though his life was tragically short, Vygotsky’s interdisciplinary vision anticipated many later developments in embodied and distributed cognition. His work continues to inspire research on how culture, language, and social interaction shape the human mind, securing his place as one of the foundational figures of twentieth-century psychology. On Monday, November 17, we are organizing two talks, one in Turkish and one in English, to commemorate Lev Vygotsky and introduce his work.
The second talk, which will be held in English, will be given by Jedediah Allen (PhD) from the Department of Psychology at Bilkent University. You can find the abstract of the talk, Dr. Allen’s biography, and the date and time information below. The talk is titled “Culturally Constituted: What Makes Vygotsky’s Development Uniquely Human.”
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required via the form on this page.
Summary:
Like all great theories throughout history, Vygotsky’s socio-cultural framework is open to varying degrees of interpretation. Accordingly, the current talk will seek to accurately portray the spirit of Vygotsky’s approach and highlight the ways in which it has had a lasting influence in more contemporary developmental science. The core insight of Vygotsky’s theory is that human persons are culturally constituted through the meaningful social activity that characterizes our development niche. Culture involves physical artifacts, interactive practices, social institutions, extended and complex social relations, and symbolic systems, like language, that are all assumed to mediate our uniquely human functioning through the processes of development. While contemporary socio-cultural approaches vary in their fidelity to Vygotsky’s theoretical concepts, all of them are united by the idea that children co-construct knowledge through available cultural and linguistic practices. Current topics with socio-cultural perspectives/researchers include: social-cognition and theory of mind, autobiographical memory, social-learning, self-regulation, executive functioning, language, and others. The current talk will highlight two manifestations of a socio-cultural approach: the first focuses on mother-child discourse in relation to theory of mind development and the second one concerns learning to learn from others (imitation and trust in testimony).
About Jedediah Allen (PhD):
Dr. Jedediah WP Allen is director of the Developmental Cognitive and Knowing Sciences lab (DeCKS) whose main focus is on the origins of cognition and human forms of sociality. This focus has both a theoretical and empirical side that form an ongoing dialectic between the two. The theoretical perspective is an action-based approach in which action with the physical environment is the foundation for cognition and interaction with people is the foundation for sociality. Dr. Allen’s research has sought to elaborate on the implication of a specific action-based approach called interactivism and to provide in-principle critiques of existing programs of research in developmental science (e.g., Object representation, ToM, etc.) and the computational approach to cognition more broadly. Other topics of study include (over)-imitation, trust in testimony, deception and lie-telling, infant research methodology, and the nativist-empiricist debate.
To attend the event, please fill out the registration form. The Zoom link will be sent to you via email shortly before the event.
If you also plan to attend Cansu Pala’s talk in Turkish, you can register here.
