Contribution of A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Venger to the Solution of Methodological Issues in Child and General Psychology

Background. The article is the analysis of methodological provisions expressed by A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Venger in relation to the understanding of the structure of psychological means. The publication reveals the relevance of considering the phenomenon of mediation in the context of cultural-historical theory and activity theory. Objective. The goal is to show the dialectical nature of the approaches of A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Venger in the analysis of three problems: the role of assimilation in perception, the transformation of the non-mental into the mental, and the relationship between learning and development. Methods. The work is of a theoretical nature. Structural-dialectical analysis was used as a research method, the main attention was paid to the analysis of the works of L.S. Vygotsky, L.A. Venger, P.Ya. Galperin, A.V. Zaporozhets and A.N. Leontiev. Results. The article shows that the analysis of the problems posed was carried out by A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Venger in the context of two theories: the cultural-historical theory by L.S. Vygotsky and the theory of activity by A.N. Leontiev. The idea of assimilation retains its relevance today. It is associated with an explanation of the mechanism of perception as the construction of an image of perception from the material that the subject has. For A.N. Leontiev, the sensory tissue was such material, which mediates the sensory image and the subject's objective activity. The idea of assimilation as a mechanism for constructing a perceptual image was shared by both A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Wenger, but the material from which the image was built differed from that considered by A.N. Leontiev. A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Wenger studied the process of transformation of the non-mental into the mental as the interiorization of external forms of activity into the internal ones. According to P.Ya. Galperin, speech utterance plays a key role in the processes of interiorization. L.A. Wenger showed that in preschool age the process of interiorization can take place without the participation of speech. In modern preschool education, as shown in the article, the problem of the relationship between learning and development remains relevant. One of the directions for its solution is characterized by the fusion of learning and development. It is expressed in the fact that with the help of play activities an attempt is made to solve the tasks of educational activity. Conclusions. A.V. Zaporozhets and L.A. Wenger not only addressed the tasks of child psychology, but also analyzed the fundamental issues of psychology, based on the position that the analysis of the genesis of the child's psyche is a way of studying the problems of general psychology.