The interaction of human beings with their environments is rarely direct; behind each one of the direct interactions usually stands a previously mediated interaction. The environment of young children is rather tightly controlled by adults who select, amplify, and interpret different features of this environment for children. As children grow up their understanding of the world becomes more and more mediated by symbolic tools: texts, pictures, diagrams, and formulae. These tools in their turn are acquired via different structured activities: games, formal learning, work apprenticeships, and so on. Greater attention to mediated interactions helps us to understand how a brain becomes a “human mind” in the sense of being shaped by interactions specific to human society in all their various historical and cultural forms.

Microgenetic methods are used to analyze moment-to-moment processes of learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Microgenetic methods are useful when studying learning that does not occur in a straight line from lesser to greater understanding, but rather occurs through a learning trajectory that includes iterative and unpredictable paths and sometimes even setbacks or failure. Microgenetic methods are also useful in studying learning that is mediated by tools and artifacts in the learning environment, and what role those artifacts play in the developing learning trajectory. These methods are time-consuming and it’s not practical to conduct studies with large sample sizes or that occur over very long periods of time; rather, the focus is on developing a deep and thorough understanding of a specific learning environment and then to generalize those findings to a broader range of contexts. Microgenetic methods are particularly well-suited to five types of research questions: questions about the variability or stability of strategies; events that precipitate or initiate change; co-occurring events and processes; trajectories or paths of change; and the rate of change.