Background. Lyudmila Filippovna Obukhova (July 22, 1938 - July 20, 2016) made a great contribution to the study of the developmental psychology.

The Objective is to recreate the portrait of L.F. Obukhova retrieved from her personal memories, to identify some features of her personality, to present the most important areas of her research and teaching job in the field of developmental and general psychology, to show her grateful attitude towards parents, teachers, colleagues.

Design.The paper shows that L.F. Obukhova, after graduating from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow Lomonosov State University, worked in the field of child psychology. She carried out a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of the Geneva School of Genetic Psychology, established by the eminent Swiss psychologist J.Piaget and his followers. Being a student of P.Ya. Galperin, she worked in the wake of her teacher’s ideas, was a part of his scientific school, conducted lectures on Galperin’s theory and carried out her own research that made a significant contribution to the development of Galperin’s theory. L.F. Obukhova showed that in the stream of all psychological theories of child development, the concepts of Piaget and Galperin are the main approaches to the issue of ontogenetic development. Both of them are fruitful, but Vygotsky cultural-historical school is the most distinguished.

Results. Fruitful activities in the field of developmental psychology, the practical value of textbooks for psychology students allow us to classify L.F. Obukhov as classical Russian psychologist.

Background. In connection with the 80^thanniversary of a famous Russian psychologist, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Lyudmila F. Obukhova it is relevant to analyse one of the most striking pages in her scientific heritage associated with her experimental study of the conditions and mechanisms of child thinking development.

The Objective is to consider the experimental model of the child’s transition from one stage of cognitive development to another elaborated by L. F. Obukhova on the basis of Pyotr Ya. Galperin’s theory, and to compare it with two alternative models created by the followers of J. Piaget in the Geneva psychological school (B. Inhelder, M. Bovet, H. Sinclair) and in the framework of American cognitive psychology (R. Siegler).

Design. Comparative analysis of the theoretical foundations and effectiveness of the three approaches to child cognitive development modeling, as well as the adequacy and completeness of the conceptual description of the according three experimental procedures: formative experiment, cognitive learning and microgenetic observation. 

Results. The method of L. F. Obukhova was the first significant attempt to reproduce the process and mechanisms of child’s transition from the preoperational stage of development to the operational stage in the conditions of the forming experiment. Using the method of "cognitive learning" allowed identifying the discrepancy between its actual psychological content and the interpretation of intellectual development as a spontaneous process. The evolution of microgenetic approach up to the modern position is traced through the identity of development and learning. 

Concusion. In contrast to the "cognitive learning" and microgenetic analysis method, the forming model of the study allows  recreating essential conditions of child cognitive development that are usually scattered in the spontaneous experience of the child and stretched in time.