Research conducted at the Institute of General and Pedagogical Psychology of Moscow, and based on the premise that the development of thought processes is a direct product of the social environment, is described. As a corollary to this premise, Piaget's view that the development of the thinking process occurs in orderly fashion is questioned. Evidence provided by Soviet researchers purports to demonstrate that children are able to learn to think abstractly before learning to solve the same problems in concrete fashion, when appropriate teaching methods are used. A mathematics training project in which children progress from abstract to concrete concepts is described. Children begin by learning the abstract concepts of measurement, greater than, less than, and equal to. These concepts are used to introduce basic algebraic concepts and the concrete numbering system. Children are instructed to describe problem-solving situations using equations before they are able to apply numbers to the problem or perform basic addition or subtraction processes. This study illustrates how children were able to produce basic formulas for problem-solving even before learning the specific procedure for counting. (Author/JAC)