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Higher Mental Functions

Unique to humans, higher mental functions are cognitive processes acquired through learning and teaching. The main difference between lower and higher mental functions is that the latter involve the use of mental tools. All higher mental functions are acquired through a system of practices common to a specific culture. Vygotsky describes higher mental functions as deliberate, mediated, and internalized behaviors (Vygotsky, 1997). For Vygotskians, early childhood education is the first step in a long process in which young children are engaged in the acquisition of “tools” and the development of higher mental functions that are learned from the people in the child’s world.

Source(s)

Vygotsky, L. (1997). The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions (M. J. Hall, Trans.) (Vol. 4). New York, NY: Plenum Press.