Soviet Psychology and Psychiatry

ISSN: 0584-5610 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mrpo18

The Variability of Mental Functions as the Child

Develops (Based on a comparative study of twins)

A. R. Luria

To cite this article: A. R. Luria (1963) The Variability of Mental Functions as the Child Develops
(Based on a comparative study of twins), Soviet Psychology and Psychiatry, 1:3, 17-22

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/RPO1061-0405010317

Published online: 20 Dec 2014.

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 VOL. I, NO.3
Bibliography
1) Volkova, V. D., Fiziol. zhurn., Vol. XXXVI,
No.5, 1953.
2) Kapustnik, O. P., Tr..Labor. fiziol. i patofizi-
01. vyssh. nervn. deiat. rebenka, 2nd collection,
Moscow and Leningrad, 1930.
3) Korotkin, I. I., Tr. Inst. fizio. im. I. P. Pavlova
AN SSSR, Vol. I, 1952.
4) Naroditskaia, G. I., Tr. Labor. fizio. i patofizi-
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Developmental Psychology
A. R. Luria
THE VARIABILITY OF MENTAL FUNCTIONS AS THE CHILD DEVELOPS
(Based on a comparative study of twins)
The basic mistake of the majority of research-
es into the relative roles of heredity and environ-
ment in shaping the human mind has been that
they have ignored the development of the psycho-
logical processes. It has now become sufficiently
clear to all that psychological processes do not
make their appearance in finished form and do
not remain unchanged throughout the life of the
individual.
Soviet researchers have demonstrated convinc-
ingly that the most significant forms of psycho-
logical activity and, especially, the higher psy-
chological functions, come into being as the prod-
17
01. vyssh. nervn. deiat. rebenka i podrostka, Vol.
IV, Moscow, 1934.
5) Smolenskaia, E. P., ibid.
6) Federov, A., cited in N. I. Krasnogorskii,
Fiziologicheskoe izuchenie deiatel'nosti golovnogo
moz au detei Leningrad, 1939.
7 Shastin, N. R., Fiziol. zhurn. SSSR, Vol. XXIV,
No.6, 1932
8) Shvarts, L. A., Biull. eksper. bioI. i medits.,
Vol. XXVII, No.6, 1949.
Voprosy psikhologit, 1962, No. 3
uct of the association of the child with adults,
and undergo profound qualitative changes in the
course of development. Arising on the basis of
natural gifts, they are reorganized in the process
of psychological development. The structure of de-
veloped perception mediated by memory or volun-
tary attention becomes considerably more com-
plex than the structure of elementary perception,
immediate memory or simple involuntary atten-
tion.
Researches have shown how profound are the
changes in each of these processes in the course
of psychological development, and how radically their
 18
structure changes. If the process of memorizing
is, in early childhood, still similar to the retention
of direct imprints of impressions, perceptions and
acts, by the late pre-school and early school ages
it is increasingly mediated by complex mnemonic
techniques. It begins to rest upon a complex sys-
tem of meaning connections, is effectuated with the
aid of speech, and acquires the nature of that me-
diated logical memory which increasingly approxi-
mates thought in its psychological structure (L. S.
Vygotskii (1), (2), A. N. Leont'ev (3)).
Whereas direct and involuntary attention con-
sists, in the early stages of development, of a com-
paratively simple form of activity and is based on
orientation reflexes thoroughly studied in physiol-
ogy, the voluntary attention of the adult individual
is an incomparably more complex psychological
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structure, including speech afferentation, which
converts into a complex process subject to regula-
tion ( L. S. Vygotskii (1) and A. R. Luria (8)).
The foregoing applies to any form of psychologi-
cal activity and to any mental process. It has now
become generally accepted that a profound qualita-
tive reorganization of the psychological activity of
man occurs in the process of mental development,
and that the principal feature of this reorganization
resolves itself to the fact that elementary, direct
forms of activity are replaced by complexly or-
ganized functional systems shaped on the basis of
association of the child with adults in the course of
the child's education. These functional systems
are complex in structure and are implemented with
the direct participation of language. As language
is, to begin with, the major means of human inter-
course, it has at the same time become one of the
principal tools for shaping man's mental activity
and regulation of his behavior. It is specifically
as a consequence of this that complex forms of
psychological activity, which are gradually imple-
mented with the participation of the second signal
system, acquire new characteristics and begin to
function in accordance with new laws that replace
many of the rules followed in the elaboration of the
elementary conditioned reflexes of animals (com-
pare A. R. Luria (8)).
***
If the structure of psychological processes
changes so radically in the course of a lifetime, is
it possible to hold that its relationship to the geno-
type remains unchanged, and that factors of heredity
and environment continue to play the same role as be-
fore in its formation? May one even think that the
nature of these processes remains unchanged?
Everything we know compels us to have deep
doubts.
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
We have every reason to think that the nature of
every "psychological function" (in other words, its
relationship to the genotype) changes in the process
of man's psychological development exactly as does
its structure, and that attempts once and for all to
answer the question as to "the degree of hereditary
conditioning" of any psychological "function" are
erroneous, if one does not take into consideration
the changes that it undergoes in the course of its
development.
Everything we know compels us to assume that
the relationship of the factors of heredity and en-
vironment, governing the variability of a given psy-
chological process, will not be identical at different
stages in mental development, and that if at certain
(early) stages in development, such psychological
"properties" as capacity or duration of memory,
attentiveness and the like, are based directly upon
elementary functions of the nervous system and
are capable of revealing a significant connection to
genotypic factors, at other (later) stages of develop-
ment, their structure changes significantly and the
leading role is played by processes making use of
a number of auxiliary functions and having a com-
plex, mediated structure. Therefore, as their struc-
ture changes, the degree to which any particular
activity affects genetic conditions will become in-
comparably smaller. If this hypothesis proves
valid, we will be able to demonstrate change, dur-
ing life, not only in the structure, but in the nature
of certain psychological processes.
Science has but a comparatively limited number
of means at its disposal for fairly exact investiga-
tion of the relationship between factors of heredity
and environment governing various psychological
processes.
The method of comparative analysis of identical
and fraternal twins is one such method. Despite a
number of shortcomings, it has significant merits.
Long-term observation of identical twins has
long since provided a technique for detailed de-
scription of the role of external influences in the
development of psychological processes. The very
fact that external circumstances can call different
ustanovkas [sets, attitudes] into being (one
twin, born an hour earlier, behaves as the "older,"
takes an attitude toward the other as toward his
"junior"; one, having been sick, becomes weaker
for a period and develops an ustanovka of subordin-
ation to the other as "stronger") creates a series of
"divergence factors," on the basis of which differ-
ent types of character can come into being on the
basis of an identical genotype. A number of special
researches, some of them the work of the present
author and his collaborators (5, 7, 8) have made it
 VOL. I, NO.3
possible to trace the influence of these "divergence
factors" under experimental conditions and to dem-
onstrate how significantly the structure of percep-
tion or of psychological activity may change in iden-
tical twins when different methods of instruction
are used.
A splendid recent monograph by Zasso (9) has
provided a detailed analysis of the use of studies
of twins to answer important questions in psychol-
ogy.
However, the technique of analysis of differences
between identical twins as compared to those be-
tween fraternal twins is of even greater significance
for solution of the problem defined in the title of
this article.
This rather widely known method consists of
making a comparative analysis of the differences
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with respect to some particular characteristic in
identical and in fraternal twins. If the differences
observed within an identical set of twins (regard-
less of whether they are large or small) prove to
be, on the average, the same as those within a
fraternal set of twins, the variability of this charac-
teristic will clearly be due to environment, if it is
identical for the two pairs of twins (identical levels
of literary or an identical system of acquired
knowledge may be cited as examples of such char-
acteristics). On the other hand, if the intra-pair
differences between identical twins are found to be
small, and those between fraternal twins large, we
will have some basis for concluding that the char-
acteristics are largely due to genotype. This was
the approach used in establishing the great respon-
sibility of genotype in determining characteristics
such as eye or hair color, height, etc.
What can be accomplished by the application of
this method to the question of lifetime variability
not only of the structure but of the nature of psycho-
logical processes, or, in other words, their rela-
tionship to hereditary and environmental influences,
respectively?
We are in possession of certain data providing an
answer to this question. It was collected long since,
about a quarter century ago, under the highly favor-
able circumstances the author enjoyed when he was
at the Institute of Medical Genetics in Moscow, and
was published only in part.
Let us turn to some of the data obtained at that
time.
We selected two groups of characteristics. One
group consisted of somatic characteristics such as
fingerprints or growth-which, in our view, were
either completely unrelated to factors changing sig-
nificantly in the course of postnatal development,
or bore only insignificant relationship to them, and,
19
it appeared to us, could be expected to retain a
comparatively unchanging relationship to genotype
and environment. The second group of character-
istics included psychological processes whose
structure changed significantly, to our knowledge,
in the course of postnatal development. The rela-
tionship of variability therein to genotype factors
could not remain unchanged, in our opinion. The
processes we chose were direct and mediated
memorization.
We compared intra-pair similarity and differ-
ences in this respect among a considerable group
of identical and fraternal twins of various ages
(pre-school, young schoolchildren and other school-
children), then under constant observation by the
Institute of Medical Genetics, and then compared
the results obtained.
The data confirmed our hypotheses.
Holzinger (6), studying fingerprints and growth
in twins, found that intra-pair differences in both
characteristics are small in identical twins but
considerable in fraternal twins, and that differences
of this type are retained in twins in the higher age
group. This is illustrated by Table 1, which sum-
marizes HolZinger's data.
We see that the ~ ratio, expressing the differ-
ence between the intra-pair divergence in fraternal
and identical twins, arbitrarily taken as the coeffi-
cient of genotype determination, is very great with
respect to fingerprints (6.8-6.3), and somewhat
smaller with respect to the growth index (2.7-2.8).
This is apparently due to the greater influence of
external conditions upon the latter characteristic.
It is significant that this difference remains among
older children, because the index of variability of
these characteristics (B/A) with age is close to
unity in both instances.
An entirely different picture was observed when
we turned to psychological characteristics.
We selected for analysis the processes of
memorization, and deliberately chose three forms
of it: direct visual memorization of nine elemen-
tary geometrical figures with subsequent recogni-
tion from among a choice of 25 figures (technique
due to A. N. Bernshtein), direct memorization of
15 words previously heard, and mediated memor-
ization of 15 words with the aid of pictures to which
each of the words had to be related and which thus
served as technical aids to memory (the latter
method has been described by A. N. Leont'ev. (3)).
For a number of reasons we were in a position to
assume that elementary visual memory was con-
siderably less subject to environmental influences
than mediated (logical) memorization, and that the
 20 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY

Table 1

Variability in Relationships of Two Somatic Characteristics in Fraternal and

Identical Twins (due to Holzinger)

Fine:erorints Growth -
Fraternal
~1
Identical
-a,
Identical Fraternal Rat'10
twins (d1 ) twins (~) Ratio twins (d1 ) twins (d 2 ) d1

Younger age-group (A) 3.2 21.7 6.8 1.7 4.4 2.7

Older age-group (B) 3.6 22.9 6.3 1.6 4.4 I 2.8
Ratio of older to
younger age-group
I
I
1'00'lees A
B - - 0.9 - - 1.01
I
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Table 2

Changes in Differences in Psychological Characteristics (Memorization) in Identical

and Fraternal Twins of Different Age Groups

Pairs of twins Elementary visual memory* Direct verbal memory Mediated verbal memorv
I Identical Fraternal Identical Fraternal d 2 Identical Fraternal ~ Identical Fraternal d 2
r d 1 ~ cr;
I
Pre-school 13 14 5.4 18.0 3.3 1.3 3.2 2.5 1.9 4.4 2.3
(5-7) I
School age I 11 II 12 5.6 14.0 12.5 0.88 I I
1.54 1.75 1.5 1.2 0.8
-ill- 13) I '
*The coefficient was computed on A. N. Bernshtein's formula S = ~ + f ,where m is the
number of figures recognized correctly, n is the total number of figures, and f is the
number of errors.

dependence upon external influences (instruction) in-
creases with age, in the case of mediated memorization.
All these forms of memorization were verified
by us (and our collaborator, N. G. Morozova) with
a considerable number of pairs of identical and
fraternal twins of pre-school and secondary school
age. The results of these studies are presented
in Table 2.
This table enables us to draw significant conclu-
sions. It demonstrates that intra-patr differences
in elementary visual memory among fraternal
twins of pre-school age is,\on the average, 3.3 times
as great as among identical twins of the same age,
which may testify to a comparatively high genotypic
determination of this function. This substantial dif-
ference is retained into the school years, although
the coefficient of intra-pair differences here is
somewhat smaller (2.5).
Verification of direct verbal memory yields a
somewhat different picture. Intra-pair differences
between fraternal twins of pre-school age proved to
be 2.5 times as great as intra-pair differences
among identical twins of the same age. In the older
school-age group this coefficient drops to 1.75,
testifying to a reinforcement in external influences
and diminution in the role of genotype factors.
Data obtained upon investigation of mediated
memorization of words are of particular interest.
Here, intra-pair differences between fraternal
twins of pre-school age proved to be 2.3 times as
large as intra-pair differences between identical
twins of the same age. However, in the school-age
group this coefficient diminishes to unity (0.8). In
other words, in experiments with mediated memor-
ization, no clear distinction was revealed between
intra-pair differences in identical and fraternal
 VOL. I, NO.3
twins. The perceptible differences observed in this
series of experiments between identical and frater-
nal twins ofpre- school age disappeared completely
here and consequently the variability of this char-
acteristic in the school-age group lost all percep-
tible relationship to genotype factors. Whereas
somatic characteristics such as fingerprints are
wholly unrelated to environmental influences, while
growth bears only a relative relationship to them,
the situation is quite different in terms of a number
of psychological processes. We know that there are
various forms of memory. Some are fairly elemen-
tary, others complex mediated processes. In ac -
cordance with our observations, the relationship of
variability of these characteristics to genotype
factors may also be dissimilar. Whereas the vari-
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ability of the elementary forms is significantly de-
termined by the genotype, that of the mediated mem-
ory processes is governed by external environmen -
tal influences.
However, another fact is most interesting. As the
data adduced demonstrate, the relationship of vari-
ous forms of memory to genotypic characteristics
changes in the process of development. Whereas
the coefficient of genotype determination is very
high in the variability of the more elementary forms
of memory, and only drops somewhat as school age
is approached, the coefficient of genotype deter-
mination of complex (mediated) forms of memory is
manifested distinctly only in young children, when
the very process of mediation is still inadequately
developed, and when this form of memory too is
still direct to a considerable degree. At later stages
in development mediated memory techniques are
established, and at that time other factors, unrelated
to the genotype, begin to play the leading role in
variability of memory. Thus, we truly have reason
to contend that new and complex forms of psycho-
logical processes are shaped with age, that old
problems begin to be solved by new means, and that
the relationship of the psychological processes to
the genotype changes significantly. The fact that the
variability of certain complex forms of psychologi-
cal activity (social in genesis and mediated in struc-
ture) may even completely lose their relationship
to the genotype when school age is reached, is re-
lated to this.
We would like to say a few words about the prac-
tical consequences that may be derived from re-
searches such as this one.
In many capitalist countries psychometric tests
consisting of a number of problems worked out in
detail, and different for the various age groups, are
still used for the purpose of determining native gifts.
The opinion is held that such psychometric tests
21
(of the Binet-Terman and other types) make it pos-
sible to detect permanent characteristics which
are, moreover, independent of environmental in-
fluences. If this were not the case, there would be
no justification for their use. Some researchers,
who employ these tests for practical purposes,
even hold that certain hereditary forms of ability
may be evaluated with their aid.
We have every reason to doubt all this very
strongly, and Soviet psychology has long since
abandoned the use of multi-phasic psychological
tests allegedly making it possible to draw conclu-
sions with respect to the relationship of psycholog-
ical processes to hereditary factors.
However, this type of attitude toward the practi-
cal application of psychometric tests has long stood
in need of theoretical refinement, and it is just this
that can be done by means of the method set forth
above: the comparison of intra-pair differences
between identical and fraternal twins.
When we engaged in this work, we did so only to
a first approximation, and the very fact that it was
not brought to completion at that time compelled
us to refrain from publishing the results.
Now, almost a quarter century after this effort
was made, we are able to present the basic conclu-
sions it enabled us to draw, with the hope that they
will be verified in places where the problem itself
continues to be of practical significance.
Having put a considerable number of pairs of
identical and fraternal twins of pre-school age
through the Binet tests (in the variant employed in
the 1930s), we obtained data pointing to the signifi-
cant role of the genotype factor in causing variation
in the coefficient of development found for the
children.
However, when we did the same work with a sig-
nificant group of identical and fraternal school-age
twins, the results were entirely different. Here. we
were unable to find any significant difference in the
intra-pair distinctions of identical and fraternal
twins, and it became absolutely clear to us that use
of this method to measure the variability of mental
characteristics at this age has only the most tenu-
ous relationship to genotype factors.
From these data it is easy to draw certain con-
elusions, provided that they are confirmed by fur-
ther-and even more extensive-observations.
There cannot be any doubt that problems well
chosen for particular age groups do actually enable
one quickly to obtain a picture of the mental char-
acteristics of the child population of each age group.
However, it is just because the characteristics of
major significance for each age group do not re-
main identical in structure, and it is precisely be-
 22
cause the characteristics of school-age children in
which we see distinctions are primarily those estab-
lished in the process of education, that their rela-
tionship to the genotype remains ambiguous.
If further researches confirm the data of the ini-
tial observations, it will become obvious that psy-
chometric tests do not measure "general native in-
telligence" at all but rather psychological charac-
teristics complex in structure and social in origin.
Investigation of the problem as to how not only
the structure but the nature of psychological proc-
esses changes in the course of development is still
in its earliest stages. However, there can be no
doubt that, with the passage of time, it will enable
us to obtain data that will bring us to the verge of
solution of fundamental problems in psychology.
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Works Cited
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issledovaniia, Moscow, APN RSFSR, 1956.
E. N. Degtiar'
THE ELABORATION OF ASSOCIATIONS IN VERY YOUNG CHILDREN
Iu. K. Panferov was the first to make an attempt
to provide a physiological analysis of the formation
of a temporary connection between a number of in-
different stimuli in school-age children (9). G.P.
Zelenyi and P. A. Prokof'ev (!) published analogous
studies with adult subjects.
A. G. Ivanov-Smolenskii @), in performing studies
with school-age children, [reinforced the indifferent
stimulus (a bell) by displaying various bright ob-
jects, different on each occasion. The orientation,
or, in the author's terminology, the conditioned in-
vestigatory reflex was elaborated rapidly and con-
sisted ofa rotation ofhead and eyes to the point of dis-
play of the picture in response to the effect of the bell.
The author is associated with the Laboratory of
Higher Nervous Physiology of the Child, in the Pav-
lov Physiological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences. psychologists term an association?" @)
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
2) Vygotskii, L. S., Razvitie vysshikh psikhiches-
kikh funktsii, Moscow, APN RSFSR, 1960.
3) Leont'ev, A. N., Razvitie pamiati, Moscow,
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im. N. K. Krupskoi, 1931.
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dovanie eksperimental'nogo razvitiia vospriiatiia
metodom differentsial'nogo obucheniia odnoialtso-
vykh bliznetsov," Nevrologiia i genetika, 1936.
5) Luria, A. R. and Iudovich, F. la., Rech' i
razvitie psikhicheskikh protsessov rebenka, Mos-
cow, APN RSFSR Press, 1956.
6) Holzinger, K. S., "The Relative Effect of
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J. Educ. Psychol., XX, No.4, 1929.
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8) Luria, A. R., The Regulative Role of Speech
in Normal and Abnormal Behavior, Pergamon
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9) Zazzo, R., Les Jumeaux. Le Couple et la
Personne, Vol. I-n, Paris, 1960.
Zhurnal vysshei nervnoi deiatel'nosti, 1961, XI, No.1
Numerous psychologists have engaged in investi-
gation of the formation of association among vart-
ous indifferent stimuli (Bikchentai (V, Boiko @,
Vlasova ®, Zinchenko @), samarin (!Q), Shevarev
(!!) and others).
Studies by Narbutovich and Podkopaev are de-
voted to the elaboration of associations in animals.
1. P. Pavlov has written that "a temporary nerv-
ous connection is the most universal of physiologi-
cal phenomena in the animal world and in ourselves.
At the same time, it is psychological; it is what
psychologists term an association, whether by the
formation of connections of any conceivable type of
actions, impressions, or of letters, words and
ideas. What basis can there be for in any way dif-
ferentiating or separating from each other what the
physiologists call a temporary connection and the