The Theory of A. R. Luriia: Functions of Spoken Language in the Development of Higher Mental Processes

First published in 1986. This study contains an examination of Alexander Luria's translated research of over half a century on language and human psychological processes. Alexander Romanovich Luria began his career prior to the Russian Revolution, while still an enthusiastic teenager, imbued with the ideals of Russian activist humanism and burning with a desire to apply science to the improvement of his countrymen. He died a world famous professor in his country's most prestigious university more than half a century later. His published works have the subject matter included experimental studies of the relation between cognition and affect, the impact of cultural and social conditions on cognitive development, the role of genetic influences in development, mental retardation, aphasia, the restoration of function following brain lesions, and the psychophysiology of mind. More important than the variety of his efforts was their unity; the scientific goals he set himself as a young man remained those he was pursuing when he died.

Donna R. Vocate University of Colorado, Boulder