Pyotr Zinchenko

Pyotr Ivanovich Zinchenko (Пётр Иванович Зинченко) (1903-1969), Soviet developmental psychologist, student of Vygotsky and Leontiev, one of the major representatives of the Kharkov school of psychology. In 1963, Zinchenko founded and headed department of psychology in Kharkov University untill his death in 1969.

Research

The main theme of Zinchenko's research is involuntary memory that was studied from the perspective of activity approach in psychology. In a series of ingenious studies, Zinchenko demonstrated that recall of the material to be remembered, that is, what and how we remember strongly depends on the kind of activity directed on the material, motivation to perform the activity and interestingness of the material, and the degree of our involvement in this activity. Thus, for instance, it was shown that following the task of sorting material in experimental settings, human subjects demonstrate better involuntary recall rate than that in the task of voluntary material memorization.

Zinchenko's pioneering work on involuntary memory was foundational for the development of Leontiev's activity theory and psychological research on memory in the tradition of the Soviet developmental psychology.

Major works

• Zinchenko, P. I. (1939/1983-84). The problem of involuntary memory. Soviet Psychology XXII, 55-111.
• Zinchenko, P. I. (1961). Neproizvol'noe zapominanie [Involuntary memory] (in Russian). Moscow: APN RSFSR. -- Chapter 4 (pp. 172-207) is published in English as --
• Zinchenko, P. I. (1981). Involuntary memory. In J.V. Wertsch (ed.) The Concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology (pp. 300–340). Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, Inc.
• Smirnov, A. A. & Zinchenko, P. I. (1969). Problems in the psychology of memory. In M. Cole & I. Maltzman (eds.), A handbook of contemporary Soviet psychology. New York: Plenum Press.

External sources

• Bocharova (1978). Problemy psikhologii pamyati v trudakh P. I. Zinchenko [Problems of the psychology of memory in the works of P. I. Zinchenko]. Voprosy psikhologii, 1978, #5. -- In English in Soviet Psychology, 1979, Summer, 17(4), 104-113.
• Laktionov & Sereda (1993). Deyatel'nostnaya paradigma i voprosy pamyati v trudakh P. I. Zinchenko [Activity paradigm and memory research in the work of P. I. Zinchenko] [1]. Voprosy psikhologii, 1993, #4.
• Mescheryakov (2003). P. I. Zinchenko i psikhologiya pamyati. [P.I. Zinchenko and the psychology of memory] [2]. Voprosy psikhologii, 2003, #4.