Communication and Cognition in Sociogenetic Models: The Contribution of Mikhail Bakhtin

Abstract

The theorelical contribution of Mikhail Bakhtin from the field of language sciences has been very productive for the sociocultural approach to mind, since both proposals give a fundamental role to communicative interactions in the constitution of the human psyche. It is proposed here that bakhtinian contribution can also be consistent with cognitive models based on information processing. With the purpose of establishing a link between these models and the sociocultural approach, the concept of conciousness is analyzed, using as axis Bakhtin 's proposals on types ofconciousness organization in relation to sociohistorical forms of discourse. In order to perform this articulation, the fundamental concept analysed here is discourse gendo; which allows facing the communication/cognition relationship at the social-communicative level as well as at the mental processing level.