Mental Tools Extend our Mental Abilities
Vygotsky applied the idea of human beings as “tool making animals” in a unique way different from his contemporaries and extended the idea to include a new kind of tool: mental tools or Tools of the Mind. Similar to the way that physical tools extend our physical abilities by acting as an extension of our body, mental tools extend our mental abilities by acting as an extension of our mind (Vygotsky, 1978). For example, quite often we find ourselves in a situation when we need to remember too many things. It will not be a problem for a few individuals who have a phenomenal memory, but for the rest of us our memory store is limited in its capacity and we can benefit from some tool that would expand our memory. In fact, over the course of centuries, humankind did develop many tools that serve as “memory extensions." From a simple string tied around a finger to shopping lists to PDAs – these are all tools we use when we do not want to forget something important.