Main types of cognitive processes. Cognitive mental processes. Features of mental cognitive processes

Submitting your good work to the knowledge base is easy. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

FEDERAL State BUDGETARY educational institution of higher professional education "Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI)"

Minsk branch

Department of Humanities

Test

in the discipline "Psychology"

Student Dovzhnaya O.O.

Head Miskevich A.B.

Introduction

1. Cognitive processes, their types

1.1 Feelings

1.2 Memory

1.3 Observation

1.4 Attention

1.5 Thinking

1.6 Imagination

1.7 Intelligence

1.8 Perception

Conclusion

List of sources used

Introduction

cognitive sensation observation

A person’s picture of the surrounding world is formed through the functioning of mental cognitive processes. Psychological theories have been developed that prove that mental processes can be formed through specially organized external activity (for example, the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions by P.Ya. Galperin). External activity in the process of developing skills gradually turns into internal, actually mental. Such internalized mental processes are voluntary and speech-mediated cognitive processes: sensation, perception, representation, attention, memory, imagination, thinking. The human psyche is a whole, so the identification of individual mental processes is quite arbitrary. It is difficult to draw a clear line between perception, memory and thinking. However, these processes have their own characteristic features, which makes it possible to isolate them within cognitive activity.

The purpose of this work is to consider cognitive processes and their types.

1. Cognitive processsy, their types

Cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking, imagination) are an integral part of any human activity and ensure one or another of its effectiveness. Cognitive processes allow a person to outline in advance goals, plans and content of upcoming activities, and to play out the course of this activity in his mind. When they talk about a person’s general abilities, they also mean the level of development and characteristic features of his cognitive processes, since the better these processes are developed in a person, the more capable he is, the greater capabilities he has. The ease and effectiveness of his learning depends on the level of development of the student’s cognitive processes.

A person is born with sufficiently developed inclinations for cognitive activity, but the newborn carries out cognitive processes at first unconsciously, instinctively. He still has to develop his cognitive abilities and learn to manage them. Therefore, the level of development of a person’s cognitive abilities depends not only on the inclinations received at birth (although they play a significant role in the development of cognitive processes), but to a greater extent on the nature of the child’s upbringing in the family, at school, and on his own activities for the self-development of his intellectual abilities.

Cognitive processes are carried out in the form of separate cognitive actions, each of which represents an integral mental act, consisting inseparably of all types of mental processes. But one of them is usually the main one, the leading one, determining the nature of a given cognitive action. Only in this sense can mental processes such as perception, memory, thinking, and imagination be considered separately. Thus, in the processes of memorization and learning, thinking is involved in a more or less complex unity with speech.

1.1 Feelings

Sensations are considered the simplest of all mental phenomena. From the point of view of life, it is difficult to imagine something more natural than seeing, hearing, feeling the touch of an object. Rather, we are able to perceive the loss of one of them as something irreparable. Psychology has a specific definition of sensations. From her point of view, sensations are a conscious, subjectively presented in a person’s head or an unconscious, but acting on his behavior, product of the processing by the central nervous system of significant stimuli that arise in the internal or external environment. All living beings that have a nervous system have the ability to sense.

Conscious sensations are present only in living beings that have a brain and cerebral cortex.

By their origin, sensations from the very beginning were associated with the activity of the body, with the need to satisfy its biological needs. The vital role of sensation is to promptly and quickly convey to the central nervous system, as the main organ of activity control, information about the state of the external and internal environment, and the presence of biologically significant factors in it. Sensations in their quality and diversity reflect the diversity of environmental properties that are significant for humans. Types of sensation reflect the uniqueness of the stimuli that give rise to them. These stimuli cause sensations of different qualities: visual, auditory, skin (sensations of touch, pressure, pain, heat, cold), gustatory, olfactory.

According to modern data, the human brain is a highly complex, self-learning analog computing machine, working according to genotypically determined and lifetime acquired programs that are continuously improved under the influence of incoming information. By processing this information, the human brain makes decisions, gives commands and controls their implementation.

Let's consider the types of sensations in more detail:

1) Olfaction is a type of sensitivity that generates specific sensations of smell. This is one of the most ancient, simple and vital sensations.

2) Taste sensations - are divided into 4 main modalities: sweet, salty, sour, bitter. All other sensations of taste are various combinations of these four basic ones.

3) Touch is the most widely represented and widespread type of sensitivity.

1.2 Memory

It is known that each of our experiences, impressions or movements constitutes a certain trace that can persist for quite a long time and, under appropriate conditions, appear again and become an object of consciousness.

Thus, memory is a complex mental process consisting of several private processes associated with each other. Memory is necessary for a person. It allows him to accumulate, save and subsequently use personal life experience. Human memory is not just some single function. There are many different processes involved. There are three completely different types of memory: 1) as a “direct imprint” of sensory information; 2) short-term memory; 3) long-term memory.

There are three processes in memory: memorization (entering information into memory), storage (retention) and reproduction. These processes are interconnected. Organization of memory influences retention. The quality of the save determines the playback.

According to the mechanism, logical and mechanical memorization are distinguished. The result is literal and semantic.

1.3 Observation

Observation is necessary in all areas of human life and activity. Inventors and innovators of production, scientists, writers, painters, actors are always distinguished by great powers of observation; they owe their achievements to a large extent to her. The development of observation, accuracy and versatility of perception must be given serious attention already in childhood, especially in the process of play and learning, using in the latter case various tasks (observations of natural phenomena, weather, plant growth, animal behavior), laboratory work (in high school) schools), etc.

1.4 Attention

The most important feature of the course of mental processes is their selective, directed nature. This selective, directed nature of mental activity is associated with such a property of our psyche as attention.

Unlike cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking, etc.), attention does not have its own special content; it manifests itself within these processes and is inseparable from them. Attention characterizes the dynamics of mental processes.

Attention-- this is the focus of the psyche (consciousness) on certain objects that have stable or situational significance for the individual, the concentration of the psyche (consciousness), suggesting an increased level of sensory, intellectual or motor activity.

Types of attention:

1) involuntary

2) arbitrary

Involuntary attention is the concentration of consciousness on an object due to some of its characteristics.

Voluntary attention is a consciously regulated concentration on an object.

The reason for the emergence of voluntary attention to any object is the setting of the goal of the activity, the practical activity itself, for the implementation of which a person is responsible.

An important condition for maintaining attention is a person’s mental state.

There is also such a process as switching attention: intentional (voluntary) and unintentional (involuntary).

Deliberate switching of attention occurs when the nature of activity changes, when new tasks are set in the context of the use of new methods of action. Deliberate switching of attention is accompanied by the participation of a person’s volitional efforts.

Unintentional switching of attention usually occurs easily, without much tension or volitional effort.

1.5 Thinking

Thinking is the highest level of human cognition, the process of reflection in the brain of the surrounding real world, based on two fundamentally different psychophysiological mechanisms: the formation and continuous replenishment of the stock of concepts, ideas and the derivation of new judgments and conclusions. Thinking allows you to gain knowledge about such objects, properties and relationships of the surrounding world that cannot be directly perceived using the first signal system. The forms and laws of thinking are the subject of consideration of logic, and psychophysiological mechanisms are the subject of psychology and physiology, respectively. (from the point of view of physiology and psychology, this definition is more correct).

The main types of thinking include:

1) Theoretical conceptual thinking is such thinking, using which a person, in the process of solving a problem, turns to concepts, performs actions in the mind, without directly dealing with the experience gained through the senses. He discusses and searches for a solution to a problem from beginning to end in his mind, using ready-made knowledge obtained by other people, expressed in conceptual form, judgments, and inferences. Theoretical conceptual thinking is characteristic of scientific theoretical research.

2) Theoretical figurative thinking (differs from conceptual thinking in that the material that a person uses here to solve a problem is not concepts, judgments or inferences, but images).

Both types of thinking - theoretical conceptual and theoretical figurative - in reality, as a rule, coexist. They complement each other quite well, revealing to a person different but interconnected aspects of existence. Theoretical conceptual thinking provides, although abstract, but at the same time the most accurate, generalized reflection of reality. Theoretical figurative thinking allows us to obtain a specific subjective perception of it, which is no less real than the objective-conceptual one.

3) visual-figurative thinking - consists in the fact that the thought process in it is directly related to the thinking person’s perception of the surrounding reality and cannot take place without it.

This form of thinking is most fully and comprehensively represented among children of preschool and primary school age, and among adults - among people engaged in practical work. This type of thinking is quite developed in all people who often have to make decisions about the objects of their activity only by observing them, but without directly touching them.

4) visual-effective thinking - consists in the fact that the thinking process itself is a practical transformative activity carried out by a person with real objects.

Let us note that the listed types of thinking also act as levels of its development. Theoretical thinking is considered more perfect than practical thinking, and conceptual thinking represents a higher level of development than figurative thinking.

The difference between theoretical and practical types of thinking, according to B.M. Teplov, consists only in the fact that “they are differently related to practice... The work of practical thinking is mainly aimed at solving particular specific problems..., while the work of theoretical thinking is aimed mainly at finding general patterns.” Both theoretical and practical thinking are ultimately connected with practice, but in the case of practical thinking this connection is more direct, immediate.

All of the listed types of thinking coexist in humans and can be represented in the same activity. However, depending on its nature and ultimate goals, one or another type of thinking dominates. For this reason they all differ. In terms of their degree of complexity, in terms of the demands they place on a person’s intellectual and other abilities, all of these types of thinking are not inferior to each other.

1.6 Imagination

Imagination is the ability of consciousness to create images, ideas, ideas and manipulate them; plays a key role in the following mental processes: modeling, planning, creativity, play, human memory.

Types (forms) of imagination:

1. involuntary forms of imagination, independent of the goals and intentions of a person, their course is not controlled by the work of consciousness, they arise when the degree of its activity decreases or the work is disrupted.

· dreams.

· Delirium is a disorder of consciousness. Delusions can result from mental illness. Images of the imagination that arise in delusional states, as a rule, have a negative emotional connotation.

· Hallucinations - appear under the influence of certain toxic and narcotic substances. This is a heightened unrealistic perception of reality, distorted by reduced control of consciousness and transformed by the imagination.

· Hypnotic forms of imagination - resemble real perception, but are suggested, i.e. exist only in the psyche of the hypnotized person, disappear and appear in accordance with the hypnotist’s setting.

An intermediate position between involuntary and voluntary forms of imagination is occupied by dreams. What they have in common with involuntary forms is the time of their appearance. They occur when the activity of consciousness decreases in a relaxed state or half-asleep. The similarity with arbitrary forms is due to the presence of intention and the ability to control the process at the request of the person himself. Dreams always have a positive emotional connotation.

2. arbitrary forms of imagination. They are subordinated to a creative plan or tasks of activity and arise on the basis of the work of consciousness.

Voluntary imagination includes: fantasies, fictions or fabrications, scientific, artistic, technical creativity of adults, creativity of children, dreams and recreating imagination.

The imagination can be more freely reconstructive or reproductive.

You can create various forms of arbitrary imagination using special techniques or techniques.

1.7 Intelligence

Intelligence is the general ability to cognition, understanding, and problem solving. The concept of intelligence unites all the cognitive abilities of an individual: sensation, perception, memory, representation, thinking, imagination.

Components of intelligence and its role:

The modern definition of intelligence is the ability to carry out the process of cognition and to effectively solve problems, in particular when mastering a new range of life tasks. Therefore, it is possible to develop the level of intelligence, as well as to increase or decrease the efficiency of human intelligence.

Intelligence as an ability is usually realized with the help of other abilities. Such as: the ability to cognize, learn, think logically, systematize information by analyzing it, determine its applicability (classify), find connections, patterns and differences in it, associate it with similar ones, etc.

The essential qualities of human intelligence are inquisitiveness and depth of mind, its flexibility and mobility, logic and evidence.

Inquisitiveness is the desire to comprehensively understand this or that phenomenon in significant respects. This quality of mind underlies active cognitive activity.

The depth of the mind lies in the ability to separate the important from the secondary, the necessary from the accidental.

Flexibility and agility of mind is a person’s ability to widely use existing experience, quickly explore objects in new connections and relationships, and overcome stereotyped thinking.

Logical thinking is characterized by a strict sequence of reasoning, taking into account all the essential aspects of the object under study, all its possible relationships.

Evidence-based thinking is characterized by the ability to use at the right moment such facts and patterns that convince of the correctness of judgments and conclusions.

Critical thinking presupposes the ability to strictly evaluate the results of mental activity, subject them to critical evaluation, discard a wrong decision, and abandon initiated actions if they contradict the requirements of the task.

Breadth of thinking is the ability to embrace the issue as a whole, without losing sight of the initial data of the corresponding task, to see multivariate solutions to the problem.

Various contents of activity require the development of certain intellectual abilities of the individual. But in all cases, the individual’s sensitivity to new, current problems, and to trends in the possible development of the situation is necessary. An indicator of the development of intelligence is the subject’s unboundness by external restrictions, his lack of xenophobia - fear of the new, unusual.

An essential quality of an individual's mind is the anticipation of the possible consequences of the actions he takes, the ability to prevent and avoid unnecessary conflicts. One of the main features of developed intelligence is the ability to intuitively solve complex problems.

1.8 Perception

Differentiate between perceptions unintentional(or involuntary) and deliberate(or arbitrary).

In case of unintentional perception we are not guided by a predetermined goal or task - to perceive a given object. Perception is directed by external circumstances (for example, the spatial proximity of stimuli, their strength, contrast) or the direct interest that is caused by a given object.

Intentional perception On the contrary, from the very beginning it is regulated by the task - to perceive this or that object or phenomenon, to become familiar with them. In these cases, the second signaling system plays a regulatory role in perception, since the task (to perceive a given object) is always expressed verbally in one way or another. The actions that serve its implementation are the result of the transfer of connections from the second signaling system to the first signaling system (the verbal expression of the thought about what needs to be perceived causes practical actions necessary for perception).

Intentional perception can be included in any activity (in a work operation, in a game, in completing an educational task, etc.) and carried out during its implementation.

In contrast, in other cases, perception acts as a relatively independent activity (for example, the perception of museum exhibits during an excursion, the perception of a performance in a theater, etc.). And in these cases, perception serves purposes that go beyond its limits (to acquire knowledge, to receive aesthetic pleasure, etc.).

Perception as an independent activity appears especially clearly in observation, which is a deliberate, systematic and more or less long-term (even at intervals in time) perception, carried out with the aim of tracing the course of a phenomenon or the changes that occur in objects of perception .

Conclusion

Mental cognitive processes: sensations, perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking, speech - act as the most important components of any human activity. In order to satisfy his needs, communicate, play, study and work, a person must somehow perceive the world, paying attention to various moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think about, express.

Consequently, without the participation of mental processes, human activity is impossible. Moreover, mental processes do not just participate in activity, they develop in it and themselves represent special types of activity. The role of mental processes is the function of a signal or regulator, which brings action into accordance with changing conditions. Mental phenomena are the brain’s responses to external (environment) and internal (the state of the body as a physiological system) influences. In other words, mental phenomena are constant regulators of activity that arise in response to stimuli that are acting now (sensation and perception) and were once in past experience (memory), generalizing these influences or anticipating the results to which they will lead (thinking, imagination). Mental processes are processes occurring in the human head and reflected in dynamically changing mental phenomena.

Spisoto the sources used

Aminov I.I. Psychology of business communication: textbook. 4th ed. - M., 2007.

Zeldovich B.Z. Business communication: Textbook. - M., 2007.

Morozov A.V. Business psychology. - M.: Academic project, 2005.

Allahverdov V.M., Bogdanova S.I. and others. Psychology / resp. ed. A.A. Krylov. - M.: TK Welby, Prospekt Publishing House, 2007.

Ethics of business relations: Textbook / Ed. A.Ya.Kibanova. - M., 2007.

Posted on Allbest.ru

Feeling

Sensation is the process of mental reflection of specific, individual properties, qualities, aspects of objects and phenomena of material reality, affecting the senses at a given moment, in the form of special subjective formations. Through sensations we are presented with the physical and chemical properties of the surrounding world and even our own body. Sensations as subjective formations arise on the basis of a psychophysiological process similar in name.

For sensations to arise, it is necessary, first of all, to have objects and phenomena in the real world influencing the sense organs, which are called in this case irritants. The effect of stimuli on the sense organs is called irritation. Excitation of systems of nerve cells with the obligatory participation of cells of the cerebral cortex gives sensation.

The physiological basis of sensations is the complex activity of the sense organs. I.P. Pavlov called this activity analyzer, and the systems of cells, which are the most complexly organized and are perceptive apparatuses that directly carry out the analysis of irritations - analyzers.

The analyzer is characterized by the presence of three specific sections: peripheral(receptor), transmitting(conductor) and central(cerebral).

Peripheral department - all sensory organs (eye, ear, nose, skin), as well as special receptor devices located in the internal environment of the body (in the digestive and respiratory organs, in the cardiovascular system, in the genitourinary organs).

A person has quite a few different sense organs and corresponding sensations. They differ from each other in such an important property as modality. Modality is a specific subjective coloring that is characteristic of each sensation. Depending on the modality, the following groups of sensations are distinguished: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, painful, motor, organic, static and vibration. Let's characterize them:

Visual sensations arise as a result of the influence of light rays (electromagnetic waves) on the retina of the eye, which is the receptor of the visual analyzer. Light affects two types of light-sensitive cells located in the retina - rods and cones, so named for their external shape;

Auditory sensations(distant). Thanks to this type of sensation, a person is able to hear speech and has the ability to communicate. Stimuli are sound waves. Auditory sensations reflect the pitch of sound, volume, timbre. All auditory sensations can be reduced to three types - speech, music, noise.

Skin sensations (contact). The skin has several analyzer systems: tactile (touch sensations), temperature (sensations of cold and heat), pain. Tactile sensations of the hand, combining with muscle-joint sensitivity, form the sense of touch. Touch is a specific human system of cognitive activity of the hand, developed through labor. Temperature sensations are associated with the regulation of heat exchange between the body and the environment. The distribution of heat and cold receptors on the skin is uneven. The back is most sensitive to cold, the chest is the least sensitive. Painful sensations signal the body about the need to move away from the stimulus and have a pronounced emotional tone.

Statistical feelings signal the position of the body in space. The receptors are located in the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear. Sudden and frequent changes in body position in space can lead to dizziness.

Vibration sensations. Vibration sensitivity is adjacent to auditory sensations. They have a common nature of reflected physical phenomena. Vibration sensations reflect vibrations of an elastic medium. This type of sensitivity is figuratively called “contact hearing.” In humans, vibration sensitivity is subordinated to auditory and visual. No special vibration receptors have been found for humans.

Olfactory sensations(distant) reflect the smells of surrounding objects. The olfactory organs are cells in the upper part of the nasal cavity.

Taste sensations(contact) are caused by the effect on taste buds of substances dissolved in saliva or water. Taste buds - taste buds located on the surface of the tongue, pharynx, palate - distinguish between the sensations of sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Interoceptive (organic) sensations occupy a special place and role in human life. They arise from receptors located in the internal organs and signal the functioning of the latter. These sensations form the organic feeling (well-being) of a person.

Depending on the functional purpose, sensations are divided into three groups: exteroceptive, interoceptive and proprioceptive. Receptors can be located directly on the surface of the body (exteroceptors) and in internal organs and tissues (interoceptors). An intermediate position is occupied by proprioceptors, which serve to sense the movement and position of body organs, and also participate in determining the properties and qualities of objects, in particular, when touching them with the hand, those located in the muscles and ligaments. Thus, the peripheral part of the analyzer plays the role of a perceiving apparatus. Receptors have a very strict specialization in the sense that each of them is capable of reacting only to certain physical and chemical properties of sensed objects and phenomena.

Sensations have some important properties, knowledge of which is of great importance for understanding many life situations and phenomena. In addition to modality, these include energy parameters, temporal characteristics, adaptation, sensitization and synesthesia. Let's look at them in more detail.

For a sensation to occur, the triggering stimulus must reach a certain magnitude. The minimum strength of the stimulus that causes a barely noticeable sensation is called absolute lower threshold of sensations. Stimuli of lesser strength that do not cause sensation are called subliminal. The lower threshold of sensations determines the level of absolute sensitivity of this analyzer.

The maximum strength of the stimulus, at which a sensation adequate to the current stimulus still occurs, is called the absolute upper threshold of sensations.

The most important property of sensations is intensity. The stronger the stimulus, the more intense the resulting sensation.

The minimum difference between two stimuli that causes a barely noticeable difference in sensations is called threshold of discrimination.

Latent period- the period of time after which a sensation occurs. A change in the sensitivity of the analyzer under the influence of a stimulus is called adaptation.

Sensitization– this is an increase in sensitivity under the influence of the interaction of sensations and exercises (development of hearing in children with the help of exercises). Sensations of one modality can change under the influence of stimulation of other senses.

This happens as a result interaction of sensations(for example, visual sensitivity increases under the influence of certain olfactory stimuli).

Introduction

The mental processes by which images of the environment are formed, as well as images of the organism itself and its internal environment, are called cognitive mental processes.

Mental processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking, speech - act as the most important components of any activity. In order to satisfy his needs, communicate, play, study and work, a person must perceive the world, pay attention to certain moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think, and make judgments. Consequently, without the participation of mental processes, human activity is impossible; they act as its integral internal moments.

Occurring simultaneously, these processes interact with each other so harmoniously and so imperceptibly for us that at any given moment we perceive and understand the world not as a jumble of colors, shades, shapes, sounds, smells that need to be understood in order to establish what’s what , and not as a picture depicted on some screen, but precisely as a world outside of us, filled with light, sounds, smells, objects, inhabited by people, having a perspective and clearly perceived, as well as hidden, not perceived at the moment plan. Despite the fact that with the help of our senses at any given moment we perceive only part of the space, we know that the space of the world around us is holistic and continuous. Thanks to these processes, the world also appears before us in its temporal integrity and continuity, as something that develops and exists not only in the present, but also has a past and a future, as a result of which its temporal boundaries expand indefinitely.

1. Sensation and perception

In knowledge, it is customary to distinguish two levels: sensory and rational. The first level includes cognition through the senses. In the process of sensory cognition, a person develops an image, a picture of the surrounding world in its immediate reality and diversity. Sensory cognition is represented by sensations and perceptions. In rational knowledge, a person goes beyond the limits of sensory perception, reveals the essential properties, connections and relationships between objects of the surrounding world. Rational knowledge of the surrounding world is carried out thanks to thinking, memory and imagination.

Sensations are the simplest form of mental activity. They arise as a reflex reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus. The physiological basis of sensation is a nervous process that occurs when a stimulus acts on an analyzer adequate to it. The analyzer consists of three parts:

Peripheral section (receptor), transforming energy into a nervous process;

Conducting nerve pathways connecting the peripheral parts of the analyzer with its center: afferent (directed to the center) and efferent (going to the periphery);

The subcortical and cortical sections of the analyzer, where the processing of nerve impulses coming from the peripheral sections occurs.

The cells of the peripheral parts of the analyzer correspond to certain areas of cortical cells. Numerous experiments make it possible to clearly establish the localization in the cortex of certain types of sensitivity. The visual analyzer is represented mainly in the occipital zones of the cortex, the auditory one - in the temporal zones, tactile-motor sensitivity is localized in the posterior central gyrus, etc.

For sensation to occur, the entire analyzer must operate. The impact of an irritant on the receptor causes irritation. The beginning of this irritation is expressed in the transformation of external energy into a nervous process, which is produced by the receptor. From the receptor, this process reaches the cortical part of the analyzer along afferent pathways, as a result of which the body’s response to irritation occurs - a person feels light, sound or other qualities of the stimulus. At the same time, the influence of the external or internal environment on the peripheral part of the analyzer causes a response that is transmitted along the efferent pathways and leads to the pupil dilating or contracting, the gaze being directed to the object, the hand withdrawing from the hot object, etc. The entire path described is called the reflex hoof. The interconnection of the elements of the reflex ring creates the basis for the orientation of a complex organism in the surrounding world and ensures the activity of the organism in different conditions of its existence.

Sensations are a form of reflection of adequate stimuli. For example, visual sensations arise when exposed to electromagnetic waves with a length in the range from 380 to 780 millimicrons, auditory sensations - when exposed to mechanical vibrations with a frequency of 16 to 20,000 Hz, volume from 16-18 to 120 decibels, tactile sensations are caused by the action of mechanical stimuli on the surface of the skin, vibrations are generated by the vibration of objects. Other sensations (temperature, olfactory, taste) also have their own specific stimuli. Closely related to the adequacy of the stimulus is the limitation of sensations, due to the structural features of the sense organs. The human ear cannot detect ultrasound, although some animals, such as dolphins, have this ability. Human eyes are sensitive to only a small part of the spectrum. A significant part of physical influences that do not have vital significance are not perceived by us. To perceive radiation and some other influences found on Earth in their pure form and in quantities that threaten human life, we simply do not have sense organs.

The spatial localization of the stimulus also determines the nature of the sensations. Spatial analysis, carried out by distant receptors, provides information about the localization of the stimulus in space. Contact sensations correspond to the part of the body that is affected by the stimulus. At the same time, the localization of pain sensations can be more diffuse and less accurate than tactile ones.

The main properties of perception as a perceptual activity are its objectivity, integrity, structure, constancy, selectivity and meaningfulness.

The objectivity of perception is manifested in the attribution of images of perception to certain objects or phenomena of objective reality. Objectivity as a quality of perception plays an important role in the regulation of behavior. We define objects not by their appearance, but by how we use them in practice.

The integrity of perception lies in the fact that images of perception are holistic, complete, objectively shaped structures.

Constancy - ensures the relative constancy of the perception of the shape, size and color of an object, regardless of changes in its conditions. For example, the image of an object (including on the retina) increases when the distance to it decreases, and vice versa. However, the perceived size of the object remains unchanged. People who constantly live in a dense forest are distinguished by the fact that they have never seen objects at a great distance. When these people were shown objects that were at a great distance from them, they perceived these objects not as distant, but as small. Similar disturbances were observed among residents of the plains when they looked down from the height of a multi-story building: all objects seemed small or toy-like to them. At the same time, high-rise builders see objects below without distortion of size. These examples convincingly prove that constancy of perception is not an innate, but an acquired property. The actual source of constancy of perception is the active actions of the perceptual system. From the diverse and variable flow of movements of the receptor apparatus and response sensations, the subject identifies a relatively constant, invariant structure of the perceived object. Repeated perception of the same objects under different conditions ensures the stability of the perceptual image relative to these changing conditions. The constancy of perception ensures the relative stability of the surrounding world, reflecting the unity of the object and the conditions of its existence.

Selectivity of perception consists in the preferential selection of some objects over others, due to the characteristics of the subject of perception: his experience, needs, motives, etc. At any given moment, a person identifies only some objects from the countless objects and phenomena surrounding him.

The meaningfulness of perception indicates its connection with thinking, with an understanding of the essence of objects. Despite the fact that perception arises as a result of the direct impact of an object on the senses, perceptual images always have a certain semantic meaning. To consciously perceive an object means to mentally name it, i.e. assign it to a certain category, summarize it in a word. Even when we see an unfamiliar object, we try to catch its similarity with familiar objects and classify it into a certain category.

Perception depends not only on irritation, but also on the perceiving subject himself. The dependence of perception on the content of a person’s mental life, on the characteristics of his personality is called apperception. Perception is an active process that uses information to formulate and test hypotheses. The nature of the hypotheses is determined by the content of the individual’s past experience. The richer a person’s experience, the more knowledge he has, the brighter and richer his perception, the more he sees and hears.

The content of perception is also determined by the task set and the motives of the activity. For example, when listening to a piece of music performed by an orchestra, we perceive the music as a whole, without highlighting the sound of individual instruments. Only by setting the goal to highlight the sound of an instrument can this be done. An essential fact influencing the content of perception is the attitude of the subject, i.e. willingness to perceive something in a certain way. In addition, the process and content of perception are influenced by emotions.

Depending on which analyzer is the leading one, visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory perception are distinguished. The perception of the surrounding world, as a rule, is complex: it is the result of the joint activity of various senses. Depending on the object of perception, the perception of space, movement and time is distinguished.

Perception is often classified according to the degree to which consciousness is directed and focused on a particular object. In this case, we can distinguish intentional (voluntary) and unintentional (involuntary) perception. Intentional perception is, at its core, observation. The success of observation largely depends on prior knowledge about the observed object. Purposeful development of observation skills is an indispensable condition for the professional training of many specialists; it also forms an important personality quality - observation.

Thus, sensation and perception are integral elements of cognitive psychological processes.

2. Imagination and creativity

Imagination plays an essential role in every creative process. Its significance is especially great in artistic creativity. Every work of art worthy of this name has an ideological content, but unlike a scientific treatise, it expresses it in a concrete figurative form. If an artist is forced to derive the idea of his work in abstract formulas, so that the ideological content of the work of art appears along with its images, without receiving adequate and sufficiently vivid expression within them, his work loses its artistry. The visual and figurative content of a work of art and only this should be the bearer of its ideological content. The essence of artistic imagination lies, first of all, in being able to create new images that can be a plastic carrier of ideological content. The special power of the artistic imagination lies in creating an imaginary new situation not by violating, but subject to the preservation of the basic requirements of life reality.

The idea that the more bizarre and outlandish a work is, the greater the power of imagination it testifies to is fundamentally erroneous. Leo Tolstoy's imagination is no weaker than Edgar Allan Poe's imagination. This is just another imagination. In order to create new images and paint a broad picture on a large canvas, maximally observing the conditions of objective reality, special originality, plasticity and creative independence of the imagination are needed. The more realistic a work of art is, the more strictly it adheres to the reality of life, the more powerful the imagination must be in order to make the visual-figurative content with which the artist operates a plastic expression of his artistic intent.

Observance of life reality does not mean, of course, photographic reproduction or copying of what is directly perceived. The immediately given, as it is usually perceived in everyday experience, is for the most part accidental; it does not always highlight the characteristic, essential content that determines the individual face of a person, event, or phenomenon. A true artist not only has the technique necessary to depict what he sees, but he also sees differently than an artistically insensitive person. And the task of a work of art is to show others what the artist sees, with such plasticity that others see it too. Thus, a portrait of Anna Karenina painted by a real artist for the first time revealed to Vronsky that very sweet expression of hers, which, as it seemed to Vronsky after he saw the portrait, he always knew and loved in her, although in fact it was only thanks to the portrait that he first really saw it .

There is no better way to express what the essence of artistic creativity is. Even in a portrait, the artist does not photograph or reproduce, but transforms what is perceived. The essence of this transformation is that it is not removed, but approaches reality, that it, as it were, removes random layers and external covers from it. As a result, its main pattern is revealed more deeply and accurately. The product of such imagination often gives an essentially truer, deeper, more adequate picture or image of reality than a photographic reproduction of the directly given is able to do.

An image, internally transformed by the idea of a work of art so that in all its vital reality it turns out to be a plastic expression of a certain ideological content, is the highest product of creative artistic imagination. A powerful creative imagination is recognized not so much by what a person can invent, regardless of the real requirements of reality and the ideal requirements of artistic design, but rather by how he is able to transform the reality of everyday perception, burdened with random, devoid of expressiveness strokes, in accordance with the requirements reality and artistic intent. The imagination creates in visual images, so similar and at the same time different from our perceptions, faded and erased in everyday life, a miraculously revived, transformed and yet seemingly more authentic world than that given to us in everyday perception.

Imagination in artistic creativity also allows, of course, a significant departure from reality, a more or less significant deviation from it. Artistic creativity is not only expressed in a portrait; it includes both a fairy tale and a fantasy story. In a fairy tale, in a fantasy story, deviations from reality can be very large. But both in a fairy tale and in a fantastic story itself, deviations from reality must be objectively motivated by a plan, an idea, which is embodied in images. And the more significant these deviations from reality are, the more objectively motivated they should be. In a work of art, creative imagination resorts to fantasy, to deviations from certain aspects of reality in order to give figurative clarity to reality, the main idea or idea that indirectly reflects some essential aspect of reality.

Imagination, in other forms, is no less necessary in scientific creativity.

Another great English chemist of the 18th century. J. Priestley, who discovered oxygen, argued that truly great discoveries, which “a rational, slow and cowardly mind would never have thought of,” can only be made by scientists who “give full play to their imagination.” T. Ribot was even inclined to assert that if we “sum up the amount of imagination expended and embodied, on the one hand, in the field of artistic creativity, and on the other, in technical and mechanical inventions, then we will find that the second is significantly greater than the first.” .

Lenin also highly regarded the role of imagination in scientific creativity. He wrote: “... it is absurd to deny the role of fantasy in the most rigorous science.” “They think in vain,” notes V.I. in another place - that it (fantasy - S.R.) is needed only by the poet. This is a stupid prejudice. Even in mathematics it is needed, even the discovery of differential and integral calculus would be impossible without imagination. Fantasy is a quality of the greatest value...”

Participating together with thinking in the process of scientific creativity, imagination performs a specific function in it, different from the one that thinking performs in it. The specific role of imagination is that it transforms the figurative, visual content of the problem and thereby contributes to its resolution. And only since creativity, the discovery of something new, occurs through the transformation of visual-figurative content, can it be attributed to the imagination. In a real thought process, a visual image also participates in unity with the concept to one degree or another. But the figurative content of perception and the representation of memory, which reproduces this content, sometimes do not provide sufficient reference points for resolving the problem facing thinking. Sometimes it is necessary to transform visual content in order to advance the resolution of a problem; then the imagination comes into its own.

This role of imagination appears very clearly in experimental research. The experimenter, when planning an experiment, must, based on his theoretical hypotheses and taking into account the already established laws of a given scientific field, imagine, imagine such a situation that is not directly given, which, satisfying all these conditions, would make it possible to test the original hypothesis. This construction of a specific experimental situation in the imagination of the experimenter, preceding the experiment, is an act of imagination operating in scientific research.

Not to a lesser extent, but only in other forms, imagination is formed in the process of scientific creativity. The infinity revealed by science in the big and small, in worlds and atoms, in the innumerable variety of concrete forms and their unity, in continuous movement and change, provides for the development of imagination in its own way no less than the richest imagination of an artist can give.

Finally, imagination is formed in practical activity - especially in revolutionary eras, when the practical activity of people breaks established norms and routine ideas, revolutionizing the world.

. Thinking and intelligence

With the term “thinking” we can associate in our ordinary language the word “deliberation” or (less normatively, but perhaps more accurately) “thinking.” The word “mind” expresses a property, an ability; thinking is a process. When solving a problem, we think, and do not “get smart” - this is the sphere of the psychology of thinking, not intelligence. Thus, both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. An intelligent person is one who is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Intelligence is the ability to think. Thinking is a process in which intelligence is realized.

Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important and distinctive features of a person. It is not without reason that the term “homo sapiens” is used to define the species of modern man. A person who has lost his sight, hearing or the ability to move, of course, suffers a serious loss, but does not cease to be a person. After all, deaf Beethoven or blind Homer are considered by us as great personalities. The one who has lost his mind seems to us to be struck at the very essence of humanity.

The description of the various types and types of thinking is based on the premise that there is no thinking at all: thinking is heterogeneous and subject to detail. Different types of thinking are divided according to their functional purpose, development, structure, means used, and cognitive capabilities.

In psychology, the most common classification of types of thinking is: visual-actional, visual-figurative, verbal-logical. This classification is based on a genetic principle and reflects three successive levels of development of thinking. Each of these types of thinking is determined by two criteria. One of them (the first part of the names) is the specific form in which it is necessary to present the subject with a cognizable object or situation in order for them to be able to be successfully operated:

the object as such in its materiality and concreteness;

an object depicted in a picture, diagram, drawing;

an object described in one or another sign system.

Another criterion (the second part of the names) is the main ways in which a person experiences the world around him:

through practical action with an object;

using figurative representations;

based on logical concepts and other sign formations.

The main characteristic of visual-effective thinking is determined by the ability to observe real objects and learn the relationships between them in a real transformation of the situation. Practical cognitive objective actions are the basis of all later forms of thinking. With visual-figurative thinking, the situation is transformed in terms of image or representation. The subject operates with visual images of objects through their figurative representations. At the same time, the image of an object allows you to combine a set of heterogeneous practical operations into a holistic picture. Mastering visual and figurative representations expands the scope of practical thinking.

At the level of verbal-logical thinking, a subject can, using logical concepts, cognize essential patterns and unobservable relationships of the reality under study. The development of verbal-logical thinking rebuilds and organizes the world of figurative ideas and practical actions.

The described types of thinking form the stages of development of thinking in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. They coexist in an adult and function in solving various problems. Therefore, they cannot be assessed in terms of greater or lesser value. Verbal-logical thinking cannot be the “ideal” of thinking in general, the end point of intellectual development.

Intelligence (from the Latin intellectus - understanding, comprehension, comprehension) in psychology is defined as the general ability to cognition and problem solving, which determines the success of any activity and underlies other abilities. Intelligence is not limited to thinking, although thinking abilities form the basis of intelligence. In general, intelligence is a system of all human cognitive abilities: sensation, perception, memory, representation, imagination and thinking. The concept of intelligence as a general mental ability is used as a generalization of behavioral characteristics associated with successful adaptation to new life challenges.

In 1937, the first version of his test for measuring intelligence was proposed by D. Wexler. He created a scale to measure intelligence not only for children, but also for adults. The Wechsler intellectual scale for children has been translated into Russian, adapted and widely used in our country. The Wechsler scale differed significantly from the Stanford-Binet test. The tasks that were offered to the subjects according to L. Theremin’s method were the same for all ages. The basis for the assessment was the number of correct answers given by the subject. This number was then compared with the average number of responses for subjects in that age group. This procedure greatly simplified the calculation of IQ. D. Wexler proposed a qualitative classification of levels of intelligence development, based on the frequency of occurrence of a certain IQ:

79 - borderline level of development;

89 - reduced level of intelligence;

109 - average level of intelligence;

119 is a good norm;

129-high intelligence;

and above - very high intelligence.

Currently, interest in intelligence tests has weakened significantly, primarily due to the low predictive value of these methods: subjects with high scores on intelligence tests do not always achieve high achievements in life, and vice versa. In this regard, the term “good intelligence” even appeared in psychology, which is understood as intellectual abilities that are effectively implemented in a person’s real life and contribute to his high social achievements.

Today, despite attempts to identify new “elementary intellectual abilities,” researchers are generally inclined to believe that general intelligence exists as a universal mental ability. In connection with the successes in the development of cybernetics, systems theory, information theory, etc., there has been a tendency to understand intelligence as the cognitive activity of any complex systems capable of learning, purposeful processing of information and self-regulation. The results of psychogenetic studies indicate a high level of genetic determination of intelligence. Nonverbal intelligence is more trainable. The individual level of intellectual development is also determined by a number of environmental influences: the “intellectual climate” of the family, the order of birth of the child in the family, the profession of the parents, the breadth of social contacts in early childhood, etc.

Conclusion

Human life requires an active study of the objective laws of the surrounding reality. Understanding the world and building an image of this world are necessary for full orientation in it, for a person to achieve his own goals. Knowledge of the surrounding world is included in all spheres of human activity and the main forms of its activity.

Sensation is a process of primary information processing, which is a reflection of the individual properties of objects and phenomena that arise when they directly impact the sense organs, as well as a reflection of the internal properties of the body. Sensation performs the function of orienting the subject in individual, most elementary properties of the objective world.

Perception (perception) is the reflection in the human mind of objects, phenomena, integral situations of the objective world with their direct impact on the senses. In contrast to sensations, in the processes of perception (of a situation, a person), a holistic image of an object is formed, which is called a perceptual image. The image of perception is not reduced to a simple sum of sensations, although it includes them in its composition.

Imagination plays an essential role in every creative process. Its significance is especially great in artistic creativity.

Imagination is formed in practical activity - especially in revolutionary eras, when the practical activity of people breaks established norms and routine ideas, revolutionizing the world.

Thinking and intelligence are similar terms. Their relationship becomes even clearer when translated into words from ordinary Russian. In this case, the word “mind” will correspond to intelligence. We say “smart person” to denote individual differences in intelligence. We can also say that the child’s mind develops with age - this conveys the problem of intellectual development.

Thus, both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. An intelligent person is one who is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Intelligence is the ability to think. Thinking is a process in which intelligence is realized.

List of used literature

imagination memory intelligence creativity

1.Godefroy J. What is psychology? A textbook of general psychology with the basics of the physiology of higher nervous activity: in 2 volumes. T.1. / lane from fr. N.N. Alipov, per. from fr. A.V. Pegelau, trans. from fr. T.Ya. Estrina, ed. G.G. Arakelov. - M.: Mir, 1992. - 491 p.

.Leontyev A.N. Lectures on general psychology: textbook for universities / A.N. Leontiev, ed. YES. Leontyev, E.E. Sokolova. - M.: Smysl, 2000. - 511 p.

.Poddyakov A.N. Psychodiagnostics of intelligence: identification and suppression of abilities, identification and suppression of capable ones // Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics. 2004. Volume 1. No. 4. pp. 75-80.

3.1 Sensation as a cognitive process

3.2 Perception

3.3 Attention.

3.4 Memory

3.5 Types and processes of thinking

3.6 Imagination

3.7 The role of speech in human life

Mental processes that help form images environment, as well as images of the organism itself and its internal environment, are called cognitive mental processes. It is cognitive mental processes that provide a person with knowledge about the world around him and about himself.

Occurring simultaneously, these processes interact with each other so smoothly and so imperceptibly for us that at any given moment we perceive and understand the world not as a jumble of colors, shades, shapes, sounds, smells that need to be understood in order to establish what is happening. something, and not as a picture depicted on some screen, but precisely as a world located outside of us, filled with light, sounds, smells, objects, inhabited by people, having a perspective and clearly perceived, as well as hidden, not perceived at the moment moment plan.

Let us now consider in more detail those basic cognitive mental processes that are involved in constructing images of the surrounding world.

Sensation as a cognitive process

Feelings- this is a reflection in human consciousness of individual properties of phenomena and objects that directly affect our senses.

Sense organs are those mechanisms through which information about

the world around us enters the cerebral cortex (CMC). With the help of sensations, the main external signs of objects and phenomena are reflected (color, shape, taste, sound, etc.), as well as the state of internal organs.

Physiological basis of sensations is a special activity

nervous apparatus - analyzer. The analyzer consists of:

1. Peripheral department, or receptor. More than two thousand years ago

The ancient Greek scientist and thinker Aristotle identified five receptors: vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Receptors transform the energy of external influence into a nerve impulse.

2. Conductive afferent(to the cerebral cortex) and efferent

(from the cerebral cortex) nerves that connect the peripheral part of the analyzer with its central part.

3. Central cortical sections (brain end), where the processing of nerve impulses coming from peripheral sections occurs.

Types of sensations

Sensations can be classified depending on the nature of the stimuli affecting a given analyzer and the sensations that arise.

Z amazing sensations are caused by the influence of electromagnetic waves emitted by physical bodies on the visual analyzer.

Auditory sensations reflect the impact of sound waves created by vibrations of bodies.

Olfactory sensations is the result of the influence of odorous substances on the peripheral ends of the analyzer, embedded in the mucosa

the membrane of the nose.

Taste sensations are a reflection of the chemical properties of flavoring substances dissolved in saliva or water.

Tactile sensations are detected when touching objects in the outside world.

Motor sensations reflect the movement and position of the body itself, and internal sensations– internal state of the body.

Based on the location of the receptors, all of the listed sensations can be

divided into exteroceptive, interoceptive and proprioceptive.

Exteroceptive– arising from the influence of external stimuli on receptors located on the surface of the body: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile sensations.

Proprioceptive– reflect the movements of our body, since their receptors

located in the internal organs and tissues of the body and provide information about the position of the body and its movements.

Interoceptive – internal sensations give an idea of the state

internal organs, feelings of hunger, thirst, pain, etc.

The quality of sensations of all kinds depends on analyzer sensitivity

the appropriate type. Our senses differ from each other in varying degrees of sensitivity to the phenomena they display. High sensitivity is inherent, for example, in the visual and auditory analyzers, while the sensitivity of the tactile analyzer is quite low.

The minimum strength of any stimulus was experimentally established, the action of which produces a barely noticeable sensation. This minimum stimulus strength is called lower absolute threshold of sensitivity.

The lower the value of this threshold, the higher analyzer sensitivity. Upper threshold- this is the maximum strength of the stimulus, beyond which the irritation ceases to be felt.

Sense organs are capable of changing their characteristics, adapting to changing conditions. This ability is called adaptation of sensations. Thus, the sensitivity of the visual analyzer sharply decreases with intense light stimulation, when a person enters a brightly lit space from a dimly lit room. And, conversely, with dark adaptation, eye sensitivity increases:

When moving from a brightly lit room into the dark, a person initially sees nothing and only after some time gradually begins to distinguish the outlines of the objects surrounding him.

The speed and completeness of adaptation of different sensory systems is not the same: high adaptability is noted in the sense of smell (you get used to an unpleasant smell), in tactile sensations (a person quickly ceases to notice the pressure of clothing on the body), and visual and auditory adaptation occurs much more slowly. Pain sensations have the least degree of adaptation: pain is a signal of dangerous disturbances in the functioning of the body, and it is clear that rapid adaptation of pain sensations could threaten its death.

The interaction of sensations is manifested in sensitization. Unlike adaptation, which in some cases represents an increase in sensitivity, and in others, on the contrary, a decrease in sensitivity, sensitization is always an increase in sensitivity. Often, if the activity of one of the analyzers is disrupted, an increase in the sensitivity of others can be observed. A kind of compensation occurs: the person has lost

hearing, but his vision and the functioning of other analyzers are enhanced. In addition, sensitization can be achieved as a result of special exercises.

Perception

Perception- this is the process of reflecting objects and phenomena of reality in all the diversity of their properties and aspects that directly affect the senses.

Sitting down at a desk, we see its color, rectangular shape, feel the hardness of the wood, the smooth surface, that is, through sensation we determine the properties of the desk.

At the same time, we have a holistic image of the desk with all its properties - design, color, hardness of the material, etc. We can say that perception is expressed by a set of figurative sensations. Moreover, it is not reduced to the sum of individual sensations, but represents a qualitatively new stage of sensory cognition with such inherent features as objectivity, integrity, structure, constancy, and meaningfulness.

Properties of perception

Objectivity perception is defined as the attribution of information received from the external world to the objects of this world. We see not just white, but white snow, a white flower, a white robe, we hear the sounds of a human voice, birds singing, we perceive the taste of candy, etc. So, objectivity is formed only when the analyzers interact with the objects themselves.

Integrity and inextricably linked with it structure perceptions mean that the psyche of a normal person is tuned to perceive objects, and not individual lines, spots, etc.

Constancy there is independence of the perception of the properties of objects from the conditions in which this perception occurs.

Thanks to this property, a person perceives others

objects as relatively constant in shape, size, color, etc. The lecturer sees the faces of everyone sitting in the audience approximately the same in size, although the images of the faces of students in the last desks should be significantly smaller than those sitting in the front rows. An interesting fact reported by steeplejacks. It turns out they

At first they see people and cars on the ground very small, but soon constancy is restored and all objects are perceived as they should be, that is, of normal size.

The perception of an object is closely related to its meaningfulness, understanding it

essence. In other words, perception always presupposes some interpretation of data received by the senses about objects and phenomena of the external world. In perception there is always a figure and a ground, although objects can be very different, including those that are not divided into figure and ground. In addition, they can change places. This is the basis for many visual illusions and so-called ambiguous drawings, in which the figure and the background are perceived alternately. (drawing “two vases”)

We see either two profiles or one vase. See both of these at the same time

figures is impossible. One of them is perceived only as a background. In this figure, the selection of the object of perception is associated with its comprehension.

The dependence of perception on the content of a person’s mental life is called apperception. Thanks to apperception, you can control the process of perception, creating certain settings for perception. Research has shown that attitude can even determine the perception of a person's height. Thus, the same person was introduced to different groups of students at one university, but each time he was assigned new ranks and titles. When this person was introduced as a student, his height was determined to be on average 171 cm; when he was named assistant of the department

psychology, then his height increased to 176 cm; with the rank of “Assistant Professor,” his height exceeded 180 cm; and the professor’s height became 184 cm.

Perception disturbance

With sudden physical or emotional fatigue, sometimes there is an increase in susceptibility to ordinary external stimuli. Daylight suddenly blinds, the color of surrounding objects becomes unusually bright. The sounds are deafening, the slamming of a door sounds like a gunshot, the smells are perceived sharply and irritate. These changes in perception are called hypersthesia. The opposite condition is hypoesthesia, which is expressed in a decrease in susceptibility to external stimuli and is associated with mental fatigue.

Hallucinations– these are perceptions that arise without the presence of a real object (visions, ghosts, imaginary sounds, voices, smells). Hallucinations are a consequence of the fact that perception is saturated not with external actual impressions, but with internal images. When people hallucinate, they actually see, hear, and smell, rather than imagine or imagine. For the hallucinating person, subjective sensory sensations are as valid as those emanating from the objective world.

It is necessary to distinguish from hallucinations illusions, i.e. erroneous perception of real things or phenomena. The obligatory presence of a genuine object, although perceived erroneously, is the main feature of illusions. Illusions can be affective, verbal (verbal), pareidolic.

Affective(affect is short-term, strong emotional arousal) illusions are most often caused by fear or an anxious depressed mood. In this state, even clothes hanging on a hanger can seem like a burglar.

Verbal illusions consist in a false perception of the content of actually occurring conversations of others; it seems to the person that these conversations contain hints of some of his unseemly actions, bullying, hidden threats against him.

Very interesting and indicative are pareidolic illusions, usually caused by a decrease in the tone of mental activity and general passivity. Ordinary patterns on wallpaper, cracks on the ceiling, various light and shadows are perceived as bright pictures, fantastic monsters.

The most famous illusions of visual perception are the so-called geometric illusions. Most geometric illusions can be viewed as either a distortion in the perception of magnitude or a distortion in the perception of the direction of lines. An example of the segment length illusion is the Müller-Lyer illusion: two lines of equal length, one of which ends in converging wedges and the other in diverging wedges, are perceived by a person as unequal in length (draw on the board). Moreover, the effect of the illusion is so stable that it occurs even if a person knows about the reason for its occurrence.

Attention

Any human activity requires concentration and direction, that is, attention - the most important condition for the flow of all mental processes in a person.

Attention is the focus of mental activity on certain objects or phenomena of reality in abstraction from everything else. Attention is the selection of an object or phenomenon of reality from many others surrounding a person.

Types of attention

Attention can be involuntary (unintentional) and voluntary (intentional).

Involuntary attention arises without any intention and without advance

set goal. It is caused by the characteristics of the stimuli acting on a person, for example, the strength of the stimulus (strong sound or bright light); stimulus contrast (large object among small ones, light among dark ones); the significance of the stimulus for a given person (for example, a child crying for a mother among noise), etc.

But a person’s involuntary attention also largely depends on his state and well-being, mood and experiences, expectations and dreams, needs and interests.

Voluntary attention arises intentionally, as a result of consciously

set goal. It arises in a person and develops in the process of labor, since without it it is impossible to carry out and maintain labor activity. Such attention is possible with a clear goal setting, real tasks, interest, moral support, material equipment, support from management and others. Moreover, the maintenance of voluntary attention depends on the awareness of duty and responsibilities; understanding the purpose and objectives of the activity being performed; sustainability of interests; usual working conditions; the presence of favorable conditions for carrying out activities.

Some psychologists also highlight post-voluntary attention, which combines some features of voluntary and involuntary attention.

Attention has some characteristics that manifest themselves to different degrees in different people. So, properties:

1. Concentration(concentration) – highlighting an object with the consciousness and directing attention to it.

2. Sustainability– greater resistance to distractions, thanks to which a person can be focused on some object or action for a long time.

3. Intensity- quality that determines the effectiveness of perception,

thinking, memory and clarity of consciousness in general.

4. Attention span– the number of objects perceived simultaneously (for an adult – from 4 to 6 objects, for a child – no more than 2 – 3).

5. Distribution– the ability to simultaneously monitor several objects or perform various actions.

6. Switching– conscious movement of attention to a new object.

Memory

Everything that happens in our psyche, in some sense, remains in it. Sometimes forever. As a trace of the past, its sign, image.

Memory is the process of remembering, storing and subsequent

the individual's reproduction of his experience.

The ability to constantly accumulate information is the most important feature of the psyche; it is universal in nature and in many cases is realized automatically, almost unconsciously. As an example, we can cite a true story that has become a classic in psychology. A completely illiterate woman fell ill and, deliriously, shouted Latin and Greek sayings, the meaning of which she clearly did not understand. It turned out that as a child she served under a pastor who loved to memorize quotes from ancient classics out loud. The woman involuntarily remembered them forever, something she had no idea about before her illness.

All living beings have memory. The brain not only stores our knowledge about the world around us in memory, but also has the ability to reproduce this knowledge at our request, to establish an associative connection between events, since both memory and associations are closely related to each other.

Types of memory :

motor (motor)– manifests itself in memorization and reproduction

movements and their systems (it underlies the development and formation of physical dexterity, dexterity in work, sports, walking, writing).

emotional– this is a reaction to experienced feelings (for example, positive and negative feelings do not disappear without a trace, but are remembered and reproduced); it influences the formation of personality and allows you to regulate your behavior depending on previously experienced feelings.

figurative– preservation and reproduction of images previously perceived

objects and phenomena of reality; it can be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory; reaches its highest development among artists, musicians, writers, tasters, when the accuracy of reproducing an object depends on its consolidation in memory;

verbal-logical (verbal)- the highest type of memory inherent only to humans, is expressed in memorizing and reproducing thoughts, words and expressions. With its help, an information base of human intelligence is formed.

voluntary and involuntary; their difference in the goals and methods of memorization and reproduction (for example, voluntary memory is active when a special goal is set - to remember, and volitional efforts are consciously made for this; and involuntary memory is more often when such a special goal is not set, and this process proceeds passively, without volitional efforts).

According to the time it takes to memorize the material, memory is divided into short-term

long-term, operational and intermediate. Any information first enters short-term memory, which ensures that information presented once is remembered for a short time (5-7 minutes), after which the information can be completely forgotten, or go into long-term memory, but subject to repetition 1-2 times.

Short-term memory(CP) is limited in volume, with a single

When presented, the CP contains an average of 7 ± 2 pieces of information. This is the magic formula for human memory, i.e., on average, a person can remember from 5 to 9 words, numbers, figures, pictures, etc. at one time. The main thing is to ensure that these “elements” are more information-rich over time. counting grouping, combining numbers, words into a single holistic “image”. The capacity of short-term memory varies from person to person.

Using it, you can predict the success of training using the formula:

Volume of CP/2 + 1 = predicted educational grade.

Long-term memory(DP) ensures long-term storage of information.

It comes in two types:

1. DP with conscious access (i.e. a person can voluntarily extract,

remember the necessary information).

2. DP is closed (a person in natural conditions does not have access to it, but only through hypnosis, when irritating parts of the brain, can he gain access to it and update in all details images, experiences, pictures of his whole life).

RAM manifests itself during execution and maintenance

a certain activity, which occurs due to the storage of information coming from both the CP and the DP necessary to perform actions.

Intermediate memory ensures that information is retained for

several hours. It accumulates during the day, and the body uses the time of night sleep to clear intermediate memory, categorize information received over the past day, and transfer it to long-term memory. After sleep, intermediate memory is again ready to receive new information. In a person who sleeps less than three hours a day, intermediate memory does not have time to be cleared, as a result, the performance of mental and computational operations is disrupted.

Attention and short-term memory decrease, errors appear in speech and actions.

Long-term memory with conscious access is characterized by a pattern of forgetting: everything unnecessary, secondary, as well as a certain percentage of necessary information is forgotten. To reduce forgetting, it is necessary to perform a number of operations.

Firstly, to understand, comprehend the information (mechanically learned, but not fully understood, it is forgotten quickly and almost completely - forgetting curve 1a (Fig. 2.6).

Secondly, repeat the information (the first repetition is necessary 40 minutes after memorization, since after an hour only 50% of the mechanically memorized information remains in the memory). It is necessary to repeat more often in the first days after memorization, because during this period the losses from forgetting are maximum. It is better to act like this: on the first day - 2 - 3 repetitions, on the second - 1 - 2, from the third to the seventh - one repetition each, after that

– one repetition with an interval of 7 – 10 days. Remember that 30 repetitions over the course of a month is more effective than 100 repetitions per day. Therefore, systematic, without overload, studying, memorizing in small portions throughout the semester with periodic repetitions after 10 days is much more effective than concentrated memorization of a large amount of information in a short session, causing mental and mental overload and leading to almost complete forgetting of information a week after the session .

Rice. 2.6.

Basic memory processes– memorization, recognition, reproduction,

remembering and, accordingly, forgetting.

Memorization– (the activity of memory begins with it), consolidation of images and impressions that arise in consciousness under the influence of objects and phenomena of reality in the process of sensation and perception. It can be unintentional (involuntary) and intentional (voluntary).

Recognition– re-perception of an object previously perceived.

Playback– images fixed in memory are updated (revitalized) without relying on the secondary perception of certain objects,

that is, the image (object) is revived in its absence. It can be voluntary or involuntary.

Recall– the most active form of reproduction associated with

brain tension and requiring certain volitional efforts. It will be more successful if the fact is not reproduced in isolation, but in connection with other facts, events, circumstances and actions preserved in memory (for example, remembering a lost book is always associated with where the person was before and reproduces the sequence of events, which makes it easier this process).

Forgetting– the process of gradual (over time) disappearance of what was in memory. It can be complete, partial, long-term, short-term, temporary. It should be remembered that the process of forgetting proceeds unevenly: first faster, then slower.

Memory efficiency depends on a number of conditions, these include:

1. Memorization goals (how firmly, for how long a person wants to remember).

If the goal is to learn in order to pass an exam, then soon after it a lot will be forgotten. If the goal is to learn for a long time, for future professional activity, then the information is rarely forgotten.

2. Memorization techniques. They are like this:

Mechanical verbatim repetition. Mechanical works

memory, a lot of effort and time are spent, but the results are poor. Mechanical

memory is based on repeating material without comprehending it;

Logical retelling, which includes: logical comprehension of the material, systematization, highlighting the main logical components of information, retelling in your own words. Logical memory (semantic) works. It is based on establishing semantic connections in the memorized material.

The efficiency of logical memory is 20 times higher than mechanical memory;

Figurative memorization techniques (translation of information into images, graphs,

diagrams, pictures). In this case, figurative memory is involved. It happens

different types: visual, auditory, motor-motor, gustatory,

tactile, olfactory, emotional.

Mnemonic memorization techniques(to make it easier to remember). Among them:

1. Formation of semantic phrases from the initial letters of memorized information (“Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits” - about the sequence of colors in the spectrum: red, orange, etc.).

2. Rhythmization - translation of information into poems, songs, into lines connected

a certain rhythm or rhyme.

3. Memorizing long terms using consonant words (for example, for foreign terms they look for Russian words that sound similar; so, in order to remember the medical concepts of “supination” and “pronation”, they use the consonant humorous phrase “carried and spilled soup”).

4. Finding bright, unusual images, pictures that are connected “using the linking method” with information that needs to be remembered. For example, we need to remember a set of words: pencil, glasses, chandelier, chair, star, beetle. This is easy to do if you imagine them as “characters” of a bright, fantastic cartoon, where a slender dandy in “glasses” - a “pencil” - approaches a plump lady, a “chandelier”, at which a “chair” is playfully looking, on whose upholstery sparkles “ stars." Such an invented cartoon

difficult to forget or confuse. To increase the efficiency of memorization using this method, you should greatly distort the proportions (a huge “bug”); imagine objects in active action (“pencil” is suitable); increase the number of items (hundreds of “stars”); swap the functions of objects (“chair” to “chandelier”). Try to memorize a list of words in this way, spending 3 seconds on each: grass, house, peacock, dress, glasses, paperclip, nail, glue. Was it successful?

5. Visualization method: figuratively, mentally imagine in different details

(“see”) memorized information.

6. Cicero's method. Imagine walking around your room, where everything is familiar to you. Place the information you need to remember in your mind as you move around the room. You will be able to remember everything again by imagining your room - everything will be in the places where you placed it during the previous “walk-through”.

7. When memorizing figures and numbers, you can use the following techniques:

Identify the arithmetic relationship between groups of digits in a number:

for example, in the phone number 35-89-54 the dependency is 89 = 35 + 54;

Highlight familiar numbers: for example, in the number 859314, highlight 85 – year

birth of a brother, 314 – the first digits of the number “pi”, etc.;

“catch method” – replacing numbers with images: for example, 0 – circle, 1 – pencil,

2 – swan, 3 – pitchfork, 4 – sail, 5 – star, 6 – beetle, 7 – gallows, 8 – sand

clock, etc. You can replace numbers with letters and words. For example, replacement

numbers 1, 2, 3, 8 with the last consonant letters in the names of these numbers: 1 - one - N, 2 - two - B, 3 - three - R. And replace the numbers 4,5, 6, 7,9 with the initial consonants in them name: 4 – H, 5 – P, 6 – W, 7 – S, 9 – D.

Types and processes of thinking

Thinking– this is the most generalized and indirect form of mental reflection, establishing connections and relationships between cognizable objects. There are different types of thinking.

Visual-effective thinking relies on the direct perception of objects, the real transformation of the situation in the process of actions with objects.

Visual-figurative thinking characterized by reliance on ideas and images. Its functions are related to the presentation of situations and changes in them that a person wants to achieve as a result of his activities that transform the situation. Its very important feature is the composition of unusual, incredible combinations of objects and their properties.

Unlike the visual-effective, here the situation is transformed only in terms of the image.

Verbal and logical thinking– a type of thinking carried out using logical operations with concepts. It is formed over a long period (from 7–8 to 18–20 years) in the process of mastering concepts and logical operations during training. There are also theoretical and practical, intuitive and analytical, realistic and autistic, productive and reproductive thinking.

Theoretical And practical thinking differs in the type of problems solved and the resulting structural and dynamic features. Theoretical is the knowledge of laws and rules. The main task of practical thinking is to prepare a physical transformation of reality: setting a goal, creating a plan, project, scheme. Practical thinking provides very limited opportunities for testing hypotheses, all this makes it sometimes more complex than theoretical thinking.

Also shared intuitive And analytical (logical) thinking. In this case, they are usually based on three characteristics: temporal (time of the process), structural (division into stages), level of occurrence (awareness or unconsciousness).

Analytical thinking unfolds in time, has clearly defined stages, and is represented in the human mind. Intuitive thinking is characterized by rapidity, the absence of clearly defined stages, and is minimally conscious.

Realistic thinking is directed mainly to the external world, is regulated by logical laws, and autistic associated with the realization of a person’s desires (who among us has not presented what we wanted as reality). The term is sometimes used egocentric thinking, it is characterized by the inability to accept another person's point of view.

It is important to distinguish productive (creative) And reproductive (reproducing) thinking based on the degree of novelty of the resulting result of mental activity.

The structure of the thought process of solving a problem can be represented as follows:

1. Awareness of the problem situation.

2. Statement of the problem.

3. Limitation of the search area.

4. Constructing a hypothesis.

5. Hypothesis testing.

6. Evaluation of actions and results.

Highlight basic mental operations: analysis, comparison, synthesis,

generalization, abstraction, etc.:

analysis– mental operation of dividing a complex object into

its constituent parts or characteristics;

comparison– a mental operation based on establishing similarities and differences between objects;

synthesis– a mental operation that allows one to mentally move from parts to the whole in a single process;

generalization- mental association of objects and phenomena according to their common and

essential features;

abstraction(distraction) – a mental operation based on

highlighting the essential properties and connections of an object and abstracting from others,

insignificant.

Basic forms of logical thinking are a concept, a judgment, an inference.

Concept– a form of thinking that reflects essential properties, connections and

relationships between objects and phenomena, expressed in a word or group of words. Concepts can be general and individual, concrete and abstract.

Judgment– a form of thinking that reflects connections between objects and phenomena; affirmation or denial of something. Judgments can be true or false.

Inference- a form of thinking in which a certain conclusion is drawn based on several judgments. Inferences are distinguished between inductive, deductive, and analogical. Induction– logical conclusion in the process of thinking from the particular to the general.

Deduction– logical conclusion in the process of thinking from the general to the specific. Analogy– logical conclusion in the process of thinking from particular to particular (based on some elements of similarity).

Individual differences in the mental activity of people are associated with such qualities of thinking as breadth, depth and independence of thinking, flexibility of thought, speed and criticality of the mind.

Ways to activate thinking. Now let's look at how you can

promote the development of thinking.

First of all, it is necessary to note the special role of self-organization, awareness of the techniques and rules of mental activity. A person must also manage such stages of thinking as setting a problem, creating optimal motivation, regulating the direction of involuntary associations, maximizing the inclusion of both figurative and symbolic components, taking advantage of conceptual thinking, and reducing excessive criticality when assessing the result. All this

allows you to activate the thought process and make it more effective. Passion, interest in the problem, optimal motivation are the most important factors in the productivity of thinking.

A number of factors hinder a successful thinking process: inertia,

stereotypical thinking; excessive adherence to the use of familiar solution methods, which makes it difficult to look at the problem in a new way; fear of mistakes, fear of criticism, fear of “being stupid”, excessive criticism of one’s decisions; mental and muscle tension, etc.

Imagination

Along with perception, memory and thinking, imagination plays an important role in human activity. In the process of reflecting the surrounding world, a person, together with the perception of what is acting on him at the moment, or the visual representation of what influenced him before, creates new images.

Imagination is the mental process of creating something new in the form of an image,

ideas or ideas. A person can mentally imagine something that he did not perceive or do in the past; he may have images of objects and phenomena that he has not encountered before. Imagination is unique to man and is a necessary condition for his work activity. Imagination is always a certain departure from

reality. But in any case, its source is objective reality.

Types of imagination

There are several types of imagination, the main ones being:

passive And active.

Passive, in turn, is divided into arbitrary

(daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary(hypnotic state, fantasy in dreams).

Active imagination always aimed at solving a creative or personal problem. A person operates with fragments, units of specific information in a certain area, combining them in various ways.

Recreating imagination - one of the types of active when occurs

construction of new images, ideas in accordance with stimulation perceived from the outside in the form of verbal messages, diagrams, conventional images, signs, etc.

Despite the fact that its products are completely new, not previously

images perceived by a person, it is based on previous experience.

Anticipatory imagination underlies a very important human ability: to anticipate future events, to foresee the results of one’s actions, etc. The younger a person, the stronger and more vividly his imagination is oriented into the distance. In older and older people, the imagination is more connected with events of the past.

Creative imagination- a type of imagination when a person independently creates new images and ideas that are valuable to other people or society as a whole, and which are embodied (“crystallized”) into specific original products of activity. Creative imagination is a necessary component and basis of all types of human creative activity.

Passive imagination subject to internal, subjective factors.

In the process of such passive imagination, an unreal, imaginary satisfaction of any need or desire is realized. This is the difference from realistic thinking, aimed at real, and not imaginary, satisfaction of needs. Passive imagination includes fantasy - a type of imagination that produces images that have little correspondence with reality. Daydreaming is a fantasy associated with desires, most often a somewhat idealized future.

A dream differs from a daydream in that it is more realistic and more closely related to reality. Dreams are passive and involuntary forms of imagination, which reflect many vital human needs.

Mental processes: sensations, perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking, speech - act as the most important components of any human activity. In order to satisfy his needs, communicate, play, study and work, a person must somehow perceive the world, paying attention to various moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think about, express. Consequently, without the participation of mental processes, human activity is impossible. Moreover, it turns out that mental processes do not just participate in activity, they develop in it and themselves represent special types of activity.

What is the role of mental processes?

It is the function of a signal or regulator that adjusts action to changing conditions.

Psychic phenomena - these are the brain’s responses to external (environment) and internal (state of the body as a physiological system) influences.

In other words psychic phenomena - these are constant regulators of activity that arises in response to stimuli that act now (sensation and perception) and were once in past experience (memory), generalizing these influences or anticipating the results to which they will lead (thinking, imagination).

Mental processes - processes occurring in the human head and reflected in dynamically changing mental phenomena.
Cognitive mental activity begins with sensations. According to the theory of reflection, sensation is the first and inconspicuous source of all our knowledge about the world. Thanks to sensations we know color, shape, size, smell, sound.

All living beings with a nervous system have the ability to sense sensations, but only living beings with a brain and cerebral cortex have the ability to experience conscious sensations.

Feelings considered the simplest of all mental phenomena; they are a conscious, subjectively represented in a person’s head or unconscious, but acting on his behavior, a product of the processing by the central nervous system of significant stimuli arising in the internal or external environment. The physiological apparatus through which sensation arises is the analyzer. In order for a person to have normal sensations, all three parts of the analyzer need to be in a healthy state: the conductive receptor; neural pathway; cortical part.

TYPES OF SENSATIONS
1. External sensations.
Visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, skin, tactile - with their help a person learns the properties of objects that are outside of him. The receptors for these external sensations are located on the surface of the human body, in the sense organs.

In turn, dwelling in more detail on individual types of sensations of this type, we can characterize them as follows: sense of smell - a type of sensitivity that generates specific sensations of smell; taste sensations have four main modalities (sweet, salty, sour and bitter); touch(skin sensitivity) is the result of a complex combination of four simpler types of sensations (pressure, pain, heat and cold).

2. Internal sensations.
Hunger, thirst, nausea, heartburn, etc. These sensations provide information from the receptors of those sense organs that are inside the human body.

3. Motor sensations.
These are sensations of movement and body position in space. The receptors of the motor analyzer are located in muscles and ligaments - the so-called kinesthetic sensations - provide control of movements on a subconscious level (automatically).

ALL SENSATIONS HAVE COMMON LAWS:
1. Sensitivity- the body’s ability to respond to relatively weak influences. The sensations of each person have a certain range, on both sides this range is limited by the absolute threshold of sensation. Beyond the lower absolute threshold, the sensation does not yet arise, since the stimulus is too weak; beyond the upper threshold, there are no sensations, since the stimulus is too strong. As a result of systematic exercises, a person can increase his sensitivity (sensitization).
2. Adaptation(adaptation) - a change in the threshold of sensitivity under the influence of an active stimulus, for example: a person acutely senses any smell only in the first few minutes, then the sensations become dull, as the person has adapted to them.
3. Contrast- a change in sensitivity under the influence of a previous stimulus, for example, the same figure appears darker on a white background, and lighter on a black background.

Our sensations are closely connected and interact with each other. On the basis of this interaction, perception arises, a process more complex than sensation, which appeared much later during the development of the psyche in the animal world.

Perception - reflection of objects and phenomena of reality in the totality of their various properties and parts with their direct impact on the senses.

In other words, perception is nothing more than the process of a person receiving and processing various information entering the brain through the senses.

Perception, thus, acts as a meaningful (including decision-making) and meaningful (associated with speech) synthesis of various sensations obtained from integral objects or complex phenomena perceived as a whole. This synthesis appears in the form of an image of a given object or phenomenon, which develops during their active reflection.

Unlike sensations, which reflect only individual properties and qualities of objects, perception is always holistic. The result of perception is the image of the object. Therefore, it is always objective. Perception combines sensations coming from a number of analyzers. Not all analyzers are equally involved in this process. As a rule, one of them is the leader and determines the type of perception.

It is perception that is most closely related to the transformation of information coming directly from the external environment. At the same time, images are formed, with which attention, memory, thinking, and emotions subsequently operate. Depending on the analyzers, the following types of perception are distinguished: vision, touch, hearing, kinesthesia, smell, taste. Thanks to the connections formed between different analyzers, the image reflects such properties of objects or phenomena for which there are no special analyzers, for example, the size of the object, weight, shape, regularity, which indicates the complex organization of this mental process.

The construction of an image of a perceived object is closely related to the method of examining it. When an object is repeatedly perceived during the learning process, internalization occurs on one (external) side—a modification of the structure of actions with the object. It can be observed that the methods of examining an object are simplified and accelerated by reducing the number and fusing motor components into complexes. On the other (internal) side, an image of the object with which a person interacts is formed. Information about its properties (shape, size, etc.) obtained through motor examination in active interaction with an object is transformed into successive series of characteristics, from which integral representations of objects - images - are subsequently reconstructed.

Initially, human activity is directed and corrected by the influence of only external objects, but gradually it begins to be regulated by images. We can say that the image represents the subjective form of an object; it is a product of the inner world of a given person. Already in the process of forming this image, it is influenced by the attitudes, interests, needs and motives of the individual, determining its uniqueness and peculiarities of emotional coloring. Since the image simultaneously represents such different properties of an object as its size, color, shape, texture, rhythm, we can say that this is a holistic and generalized representation of the object, the result of the synthesis of many individual sensations, which is already capable of regulating expedient behavior.

The main characteristics of perception include constancy, objectivity, integrity and generality (or categoricality).
Constancy- this is the relative independence of the image from the conditions of perception, manifested in its immutability: the shape, color and size of objects are perceived by us as constant, despite the fact that the signals coming from these objects to the senses are constantly changing. As is known, the size of the projection of an object on the retina of the eye depends on the distance between the object and the eye and on the angle of view, but objects seem to us to be of a constant size regardless of this distance (of course, within certain limits). The perception of color depends on many factors: illumination, background, intensity. At the same time, the color of familiar objects is always perceived the same, and similarly, the shape of familiar objects is perceived as constant, regardless of the observation conditions. The value of constancy is very high. Without this property, with every movement we make, with every change in the distance to an object, with the slightest turn or change in lighting, all the basic signs by which a person recognizes an object would almost continuously change. He would cease to perceive the world of stable things, and perception could not serve as a means of understanding objective reality.

An important characteristic of perception is its objectivity. Objectivity perception is manifested in the fact that the object is perceived by us precisely as a separate physical body isolated in space and time. This property is most clearly manifested in the phenomenon of isolating a figure from the background. Specifically, this is expressed in the fact that the entire reality observed by a person is divided into two parts of unequal importance: one - the object - is perceived as a concrete, clearly defined, closed whole located in the foreground, and the second - the background - as a more amorphous, indefinite, located behind subject and unlimited field. Thus, the perceived reality is always divided into two layers: the figure - the image of the object, and the background - the image of the space surrounding the object.

Any image integral This means the internal organic relationship between the parts and the whole in the image. When analyzing the integrity of perception, two interrelated aspects can be distinguished: the unification of different elements into a whole and the independence of the formed integrity (within certain boundaries) from the quality of the elements. At the same time, the perception of the whole affects the perception of the parts. Rule of Similarity: The more similar parts of a painting are to each other in some visually perceived quality, the more likely they are to be perceived as being placed together. Similarity in size, shape, and arrangement of parts can act as grouping properties. Elements that together make up a closed circuit, as well as elements with a so-called good shape, that is, having symmetry or periodicity, are combined into a single integral structure. The rule of common fate: many elements moving at the same speed and along the same trajectory are perceived holistically - as a single moving object. This rule also applies when objects are stationary, but the observer is moving. Proximity Rule: In any field containing several objects, those that are closest to each other can be visually perceived holistically as one object.

The independence of the whole from the quality of its constituent elements is manifested in the dominance of the integral structure over its components. There are three forms of such dominance. The first is expressed in the fact that the same element, being included in different integral structures, is perceived differently. The second is manifested in the fact that when individual elements are replaced, but the relationship between them is maintained, the overall structure of the image remains unchanged. As you know, you can depict a profile with strokes, dotted lines, and with the help of other elements, while maintaining a portrait resemblance. And finally, the third form is expressed in the well-known facts of the preservation of the perception of the structure as a whole when its individual parts fall out. Thus, for a holistic perception of a human face, only a few elements of its contour are sufficient.
Another important characteristic of the image is its generality. It means that each image belongs to a certain class of objects that has a name. This reflects the influence not only of language, but also of the person’s experience. As experience expands, the image of perception, while maintaining its individuality and relevance to a specific object, is assigned to an increasingly larger set of objects of a certain category, that is, classified. It is classification that ensures the reliability of correct recognition of an object, regardless of its individual characteristics and distortions that do not take the object outside the class. The significance of the generality of recognition is manifested, for example, in a person’s ability to freely read a text, regardless of the font or handwriting in which it is written. It should be noted that the generality of perception allows not only to classify and recognize objects and phenomena, but also to predict some properties that are not directly perceived. Since an object is assigned to a given class based on its individual qualities, then with a certain probability we can expect that it also possesses other properties characteristic of this class.

There is some functional similarity between all the listed characteristics of perception. And constancy, and objectivity, and integrity, and generalization (categoriality) give the image an important feature - independence, within certain limits, from the conditions of perception and distortion. In this sense, constancy is independence from the physical conditions of perception, objectivity is from the background against which the object is perceived, integrity is the independence of the whole from distortion and replacement of the components that make up this whole, and, finally, generality is the independence of perception from such distortions and changes that do not take the object outside the class boundaries. In other words, generality is intraclass constancy; integrity - structural; subjectivity - semantic. It is clear that if perception did not possess these qualities, our ability to adapt to continuously changing conditions of existence would be much weaker. This organization of perception allows us to interact flexibly and adequately with the environment, and also, within certain limits, to predict the directly non-perceptible properties of objects and phenomena.

All of the considered properties of perception are not innate and develop during a person’s life.

A person does not need to perceive all the stimuli around him, and he cannot perceive everything at the same time. His perceptions are organized in the process of attention.

There are people who are always on guard; almost nothing can surprise, stun, or baffle. Their complete opposite is absent-minded and inattentive people, who sometimes get lost in the simplest situations.

Attention - This is the active focus of a person’s consciousness on certain objects and phenomena of reality or on certain of their properties, qualities, while simultaneously abstracting from everything else. Attention is an organization of mental activity in which certain images, thoughts or feelings are recognized more clearly than others.

In other words, attention is nothing more than a state of psychological concentration, concentration on some object.
Relevant, personally significant signals are highlighted with attention. The choice is made from the set of all signals available for perception at a given moment. Unlike perception, which is associated with the processing and synthesis of information coming from inputs of different modalities, attention limits only that part of it that will actually be processed.

It is known that a person cannot think about different things and perform various jobs at the same time. This limitation leads to the need to split information coming from outside into parts that do not exceed the capabilities of the processing system. The central mechanisms of information processing in humans can deal with only one object at a given time. If signals about a second object appear during a reaction to the previous one, then processing of new information is not carried out until these mechanisms are released. Therefore, if a certain signal appears a short time after the previous one, then the person’s reaction time to the second signal is longer than the reaction time to it in the absence of the first. Trying to simultaneously follow one message and respond to another reduces both the accuracy of perception and the accuracy of the response.

The mentioned limitations on the possibility of simultaneous perception of several independent signals, information about which comes from the external and internal environment, are associated with the main characteristic of attention - its fixed volume. An important and defining feature of attention span is that it is practically impossible to regulate during learning and training.

The limited volume of perceived and processed material forces us to continuously break up incoming information into parts and determine the sequence (priority) of analyzing the environment. What determines the selectivity of attention and its direction? There are two groups of factors. The first includes factors that characterize the structure of external stimuli reaching a person, that is, the structure of the external field. These include the physical parameters of the signal, such as intensity, its frequency and other characteristics of the organization of signals in an external field. The second group includes factors that characterize the activity of the person himself, that is, the structure of the internal field. Indeed, everyone would agree that if a signal appears in the perceptual field that is either of greater intensity than others (for example, the sound of a gunshot or a flash of light) or of greater novelty (for example, a tiger unexpectedly entering the room), then this stimulus will automatically attract attention.
The conducted studies turned the attention of scientists to factors of central (internal) origin that influence the selectivity of attention: the correspondence of incoming information to a person’s needs, his emotional state, the relevance of this information for him. In addition, actions that are not sufficiently automated, as well as those that are not completed, require attention.

Numerous experiments have found that words that have a special meaning for a person, for example his name, the names of his loved ones, etc., are easier to extract from noise, since the central mechanisms of attention are always tuned to them. A striking example of the impact of highly relevant information is a fact known as the “party phenomenon.” Imagine that you are at a party and are engrossed in an interesting conversation. Suddenly you hear your name spoken softly by someone in another group of guests. You quickly turn your attention to the conversation taking place between these guests, and you may hear something interesting about yourself. But at the same time, you stop hearing what is being said in the group where you are standing, thereby missing the thread of the conversation in which you participated before. You tuned in to the second group and disconnected from the first. It was the high significance of the signal, and not its intensity, the desire to find out what other guests think of you, that determined the change in the direction of your attention.

Peripheral tuning of the senses plays a major role in the organization of pre-attention. Listening to a faint sound, a person turns his head in the direction of the sound and at the same time the corresponding muscle stretches the eardrum, increasing its sensitivity. When a sound is very loud, the tension of the eardrum changes, reducing the transmission of excessive vibrations to the inner ear, just as constriction of the pupil eliminates excess light. Stopping or holding your breath during moments of highest attention also makes listening easier.

Looking closely, a person performs a number of operations: convergence of the eyes, focusing of the lens, changing the diameter of the pupil. If it is necessary to see most of the scene, then the focal length is shortened; when details are interesting, it is lengthened, the corresponding parts of the scene are highlighted and become free from the influence of secondary details. The selected area, being in focus, is thus deprived of the context with which it was originally associated: it is clearly visible, and its surroundings (context) seem blurred. Thus, the same area can take on different meanings depending on the purpose or attitude of the observer.

Theories that connect attention with motivation deserve special consideration: what attracts attention is what is related to a person’s interests - this gives the object of perception additional intensity, and with it the clarity and distinctness of perception increases. Thus, a scientist studying a given specific problem will immediately pay attention to a seemingly small detail, but related to this problem, which will elude another person who does not show interest in this issue.

The physiological aspect of all theories without exception is associated with the consideration of attention as the result of additional nervous excitation emanating from higher nerve centers and leading to strengthening of an image or concept. Its dynamics are presented as follows: in response to stimulation coming from the senses, the central nervous system sends signals that selectively enhance certain aspects of external irritation, highlighting them and giving them increased clarity and clarity.

To pay attention means to perceive something with the help of auxiliary mechanisms. Attention always involves several physiological and psychological insertions (of different nature and different levels), through which something specific is highlighted and clarified.
Thus, attention performs a kind of “feeling,” inspection, and analysis of the environment. Since it is impossible to feel the entire environment at once, a part of it is singled out - the field of attention. This is the part of the environment that is covered by attention at the moment. The analytical effect of attention can be considered as a consequence of its reinforcing influence. By intensifying the perception of part of the field and successively transferring this intensification to other parts, a person can achieve a complete analysis of the environment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTENTION
A limited amount of attention determines its main characteristics: stability, concentration, distribution, switchability and objectivity.

Sustainability- this is the duration of attracting attention to the same object or to the same task. It can be determined by peripheral and central factors. Stability, determined by peripheral factors, does not exceed 2-3 seconds, after which attention begins to fluctuate. The stability of central attention can span a significantly longer interval – up to several minutes. It is clear that fluctuations in peripheral attention are not excluded; it returns all the time to the same object. At the same time, the duration of attracting central attention, according to S. L. Rubinstein, depends on the ability to constantly reveal new content in an object. We can say that the more interesting an object is for us, the more stable our attention will be. Sustainability of attention is closely related to its concentration.

Concentration is determined by the unity of two important factors - an increase in signal intensity with a limited field of perception.
Under distribution understand the subjectively experienced ability of a person to hold a certain number of heterogeneous objects in the center of attention at the same time. It is this quality that makes it possible to perform several actions at once, keeping them in the field of attention. Many have heard about the phenomenal abilities of Julius Caesar, who, according to legend, could do seven unrelated things at the same time. It is also known that Napoleon could simultaneously dictate seven important diplomatic documents to his secretaries. However, there is every reason to assume that only one type of conscious mental activity occurs at the same time, and the subjective feeling of the simultaneous performance of several is due to a rapid sequential switching from one to another. Thus, the distribution of attention is essentially the reverse side of its switching.

Switchability determined by the speed of transition from one type of activity to another. The important role of this characteristic is easy to demonstrate when analyzing such a well-known and widespread phenomenon as dissipation, which boils down mainly to poor switchability.

Many jokes are about the absent-mindedness of scientists. However, their absent-mindedness is often the flip side of maximum composure and concentration on the main subject of interest: they are so immersed in their thoughts that when faced with everyday trifles they do not switch and can find themselves in a funny position. Here are some facts of this kind. Much has been said about the absent-mindedness of the famous composer and chemist A.P. Borodin. Once, when he had guests, tired, he began to say goodbye to them, saying that it was time for him to go home, since he had a lecture tomorrow, and went to get dressed in the hallway. Or such a case. Borodin went abroad with his wife. While checking passports at the border checkpoint, the official asked his wife's name. Due to his absent-mindedness, Borodin could not remember her name. The official looked at him suspiciously. At this time, his wife, Ekaterina Sergeevna, entered the room, and Borodin rushed to her: “Katya! For God’s sake, what’s your name?”
This story is also known. N. E. Zhukovsky comes to his home, calls, and from behind the door they ask: “Who do you want?” He responded: “Tell me, is the owner at home?” - "No". - “And the hostess?” - “There is no hostess either. What should I convey?” - “Tell me that Zhukovsky came.”

And one more fact. Once upon a time, the famous mathematician Hilbert had a party. After one of the guests arrived, Madame Gilbert took her husband aside and told him: “David, go and change your tie.” Gilbert left. An hour passed and he still did not appear. The alarmed housewife went in search of her husband and, looking into the bedroom, found him in bed. He was fast asleep. When he woke up, he remembered that, having taken off his tie, he automatically began to undress further and, putting on his pajamas, went to bed. Here we are again faced with the deep interconnectedness of all characteristics of attention.
What is the reason for the described absent-mindedness? Mainly that, having developed everyday stereotypes, scientists took advantage of every opportunity to remove from consciousness control over their execution or timely switching to another program and thereby free up the field of attention for solving the main scientific problem.

Now let's turn to the following characteristic of attention - objectivity. As has already been emphasized, the central mechanisms of attention operate by changing the sensitivity (thresholds) of sensory organs of different modalities. But a person operates with specific objects, and not with a generalized modality. For example, you can listen to an orchestra without noticing a neighbor’s cough or the noise of a fan, watch a movie without noticing the hat of the viewer sitting in front, that is, highlight certain complexes of signals in accordance with central settings, personal significance, and relevance.

The mentioned characteristics of attention (stability, concentration, etc.) are to some extent characteristic not only of humans, but also of animals. But a special property of attention - voluntariness - is truly human. Animals have only involuntary attention.

TYPES OF ATTENTION

free- consciously regulated, focused on the object.

Involuntary- does not arise on purpose, but under the influence of the characteristics of objects and phenomena, such attention allows you to navigate changes in the environment.

Post-voluntary– arises consciously after the voluntary and does not require effort in order not to be distracted.

In the process of perception, with appropriate attention, a person creates subjective images of objective objects and phenomena that directly affect his sensory organs. Some of these images arise and change during sensations and perceptions. But there are images that remain after the cessation of sensations and perceptions or when these processes switch to other objects. Such images are called representations.

Ideas and their connections (associations) can persist in a person for a long time. Unlike images of perception, ideas are caused by images of memory.

We offer an interesting test (No. 4), with which you can check whether you have a good memory. After all, in everyday life we often have to remember a lot of different information.

Remember the words below along with the serial numbers under which they appear in the list.

Memory - this is a reflection of what was previously perceived, experienced, accomplished and comprehended by a person. It is characterized by processes such as capturing, storing, reproducing and processing a variety of information by a person. These memory processes are always in unity, but in each specific case one of them becomes the most active.

There are two types of memory: genetic (hereditary) and lifetime.

Hereditary memory stores information that determines the anatomical and physiological structure of the organism during development and the innate forms of species behavior (instincts). It depends less on the living conditions of the body compared to the lifetime accumulated long-term memory. Information in hereditary memory is stored in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules, consisting of long chains coiled into spirals. Moreover, each cell of the body contains all hereditary information. As a carrier of hereditary information, DNA has a number of special properties. It is resistant to damaging factors and is capable of correcting some of its damage, which stabilizes its information composition. These and a number of other properties ensure the reliability of hereditary information.

Lifetime memory is a repository of information received from birth to death. It depends significantly more on external conditions. There are several types and forms of lifetime memory. One of the types of lifetime memory - imprinting - is intermediate between genetic and lifetime memory.

Imprinting is a form of memory observed only in the early period of development, immediately after birth. Imprinting consists of instantly establishing a very stable specific connection between a person or animal and a specific object in the external environment. This connection can manifest itself in following any moving object first shown to the animal in the first hours of life, in approaching it, touching it, etc. Such reactions persist for a long time, which is considered an example of learning and long-term memorization from a single presentation. Imprinting differs significantly from ordinary memorization in that long-term non-reinforcement does not weaken the response, but it is limited to a short, well-defined period in the life cycle and is irreversible. In normal learning, what is shown last has (other things being equal conditions of significance, probability, etc.) the greatest influence on behavior, whereas in imprinting, the object shown first has greater significance. The main thing here is not the novelty of the stimulus, but its primacy.

So, it is easy to notice that imprinting as a form of lifetime memory is very close to hereditary in terms of strength, incorruptibility of the trace and the inevitable nature of its manifestations.

The following types of intravital memory are distinguished: motor, figurative, emotional and symbolic (verbal and logical).

Motor memory detected very early. This is primarily a memory for posture, body position. Motor memory underlies professional and sports skills, dance figures and countless automatic skills, such as the habit of looking first to the left and then to the right when crossing the street. Reaching full development earlier than other forms, motor memory remains leading for some people throughout their lives, while for others other types of memory play a leading role.

One of the forms of figurative memory is visual. Its distinctive feature is that during the period of holding the image in memory, it undergoes a certain transformation. The following changes were discovered that occur with the visual image in the process of preservation: simplification (omission of details), some exaggeration of individual details, transformation of the figure into a more symmetrical one (more uniform). The shape stored in memory can be rounded, expanded, and sometimes its position and orientation change. During the process of saving, the image is also transformed in color. Rarely encountered and unexpected images are visually reproduced most clearly and vividly. On the one hand, these transformations of the image in memory make it less accurate compared to the image in verbal memory. On the other hand, these transformations can be beneficial - turn the image into a general scheme and, to a certain extent, make it a symbol. Visual figurative memory is difficult to control voluntarily. It is good to remember only the special, the extraordinary - this does not mean having a good memory.

In A.P. Chekhov’s play “The Seagull,” an unlucky writer compares himself with a talented one: “He [the talented one] on the dam has a glistening neck from a broken bottle and a black shadow from a mill wheel - so the moonlit night is ready, and I have a trembling the light of the moon, and the quiet twinkling of the stars, and the distant sounds of the piano, fading in the quiet fragrant air." Everyone has perceived and read the last description many times and therefore it does not evoke a vivid image. On the contrary, the shine of the neck of a broken bottle is an unexpected and therefore memorable image.

Figurative memory is usually more pronounced in children and adolescents. In adults, the leading memory, as a rule, is not figurative, but logical. However, there are professions where it is useful to have a developed figurative memory. It was found that you can effectively train figurative memory if you reproduce given pictures mentally in a relaxed, passive state with your eyes closed before going to bed.

Emotional memory determines the reproduction of a certain emotional state upon repeated exposure to the situation in which this emotional state arose for the first time. It is important to emphasize that this state is reproduced in combination with elements of the situation and a subjective attitude towards it. The peculiarities of this memory are the speed of formation of traces, their special strength and involuntary reproduction. There are claims that sensory memory, on the basis of which emotional memory develops, is already present in a six-month-old child and reaches its peak by three to five years. It is the basis of caution, likes and dislikes, as well as the primary sense of recognition (“familiar” and “alien”). A person retains strong, emotionally charged impressions the longest. Investigating the stability of emotional memory, V. N. Myasishchev noted that when schoolchildren were shown pictures, the accuracy of their memorization depended on the emotional attitude towards them - positive, negative or indifferent. With a positive attitude, they remembered all 50 pictures, with a negative attitude, only 28, and with an indifferent attitude, only 7. Emotional memory is distinguished by the fact that it is almost never accompanied by an attitude towards a revived feeling, as a memory of a previously experienced feeling. Thus, a person who was frightened or bitten by a dog in childhood then gets scared every time he meets a dog, but does not realize what this feeling is connected with. Arbitrary reproduction of feelings is almost impossible. Along with imprinting the sensory state that accompanied the perception of this or that information, emotional memory provides quick and lasting memorization of the information itself that caused this emotional state, but one cannot always rely on the accuracy of its storage.

Let's give an example. The following experiment was carried out: students sat in the audience, bowing their heads over exam papers. Suddenly the door burst open and a young woman, approximately 1 meter 50 centimeters tall, dressed in jeans, a plaid cowboy shirt and a Tyrolean green hat, burst into the room. She quickly threw a carrot at a student sitting in the front row and shouted: “Federal herring! You stole my grades.” At the same time, a clapping sound was heard from the corridor outside. A student in the front row, wearing a sports society uniform, screamed and fell to the floor. When the attacker ran out of the room, two men dressed as orderlies ran into the classroom, pulled the victim to his feet and quickly led him out. The entire scene took a minute from the moment the attacker ran in until the victim was taken out. The impact of emotional shock and surprise was clearly demonstrated when students were asked to immediately describe the full picture of the events they witnessed by answering a series of questions. The result was amazing. Here are some questions and answers. Who was the attacker? One student wrote: "...big, Germanic type...like a Hollywood lifeguard." How was the attacker dressed? "In the uniform of a railway conductor." What were the weapons? "The killer used a knife with an open blade." Who was the victim? "A man wearing khaki pants and a blue sweater." Since the incident was highly unexpected and had a dramatic appearance, most witnesses did not remember either the appearance of the person entering or the circumstances of the invasion. In the described experimental situation, the deformation of traces in memory can only be attributed to emotional influence, because the time factor is excluded, and forgetting cannot be attributed to the transformation of information over a long period of storage.

Symbolic memory divided into verbal and logical. The verbal one is formed in the process of lifelong development following the figurative one and reaches its highest strength by 10-13 years. Its distinctive feature is the accuracy of reproduction. Another (and this is its advantage over figurative memory) is a significantly greater dependence on will. Reproducing a visual image is not always in our power, while repeating a phrase is much easier. However, even with verbal storage, distortions are observed. Thus, when memorizing a series of words, the initial and final ones are most accurately reproduced; in addition, the detail in the story that attracted a person’s attention tends to move to the beginning during retelling. Accuracy of verbal reproduction is ensured not only by repetition, but also by abbreviation. The text can be shortened and thereby facilitate the work of memory: the shorter it is, the fewer errors during reproduction. Brevity is effective not only due to simple cutting, but also due to the development of rules for highlighting the most essential. Gradually, logical memory develops through generalization.
The relationship between verbal memory and visual memory is complex. On the one hand, verbal memory itself is more accurate than visual memory, on the other hand, it can influence visual images stored in memory, enhancing their transformation or suppressing them completely. In this case, visual images in memory can be transformed to more closely match their verbal descriptions.

Based on the time it takes to store material, there are four main forms of memory:
- instant (or iconic - memory-image) is associated with retaining an accurate and complete picture of what has just been perceived by the senses, without any processing of the information received. This memory is a direct reflection of information by the senses. Its duration is from 0.1 to 0.5 seconds and it represents the complete residual impression that arises from the direct perception of stimuli;
- short-term is a method of storing information for a short period of time. The duration of retention of mnemonic traces here does not exceed several tens of seconds, on average about 20 (without repetition). In short-term memory, not a complete, but only a generalized image of what is perceived, its most essential elements, is stored. This memory works without a preliminary conscious intention to memorize, but with an intention to subsequently reproduce the material;
- operational called memory designed to store information for a certain, predetermined period, ranging from several seconds to several days. The storage period of information in this memory is determined by the task faced by a person, and is designed only for solving this problem. After this, information may disappear from RAM;
– long-term memory is capable of storing information for an almost unlimited period. Information that has entered the storage of long-term memory can be reproduced by a person as many times as desired without loss. Moreover, repeated and systematic reproduction of this information only strengthens its traces in long-term memory.

Features of memorization and recollection act as qualities of memory. These include volume (measured by the number of objects recalled immediately after their single perception), speed (measured by speed, that is, the amount of time spent memorizing and recalling the desired material), accuracy (measured by the degree of similarity of what is recalled with what is being recalled). perceived), duration (measured by the amount of time during which, without repeated perceptions, what was remembered can be recalled).
To sum up all of the above, we can emphasize that memory is a mental process of imprinting and reproducing a person’s experience. Thanks to memory, a person’s past experience does not disappear without a trace, but is preserved in the form of ideas.

Sensations, perceptions and ideas of a person reflect mainly those objects and phenomena or their individual properties that directly affect the analyzers. These mental processes, together with involuntary attention and visual-figurative memory, represent the sensory foundations of human cognition of objective reality.

But sensory foundations do not exhaust all the possibilities of human reflection. This is evidenced by the fact that a person does not feel or perceive a lot, but learns. He, for example, does not hear ultra-short or very weak sounds, does not feel small temperature changes, does not see the movement of light or radio waves, does not feel the processes occurring inside atoms, etc. The limitations of sensory cognition are especially acute in the reflection of the past and future, that is, something that objectively does not exist and does not affect a person at a specific moment in his life activity.

Despite such limitations, a person still reflects what is inaccessible to his sensory knowledge. This happens through thinking.

Thinking - this is a generalized reflection of objective reality in its natural, most essential connections and relationships. It is characterized by community and unity with speech.

In other words, thinking is a mental process of cognition associated with the discovery of subjectively new knowledge, with problem solving, with the creative transformation of reality.

Thinking manifests itself when solving any problem that arises before a person, as long as it is relevant, does not have a ready-made solution, and a powerful motive prompts a person to look for a way out. The immediate impetus for the development of the thought process is the emergence of a task, which, in turn, appears as a consequence of the awareness of the discrepancy between the principles and methods of performing actions known to man and new conditions that preclude their application. The first stage, immediately following the awareness of the presence of a task, is usually associated with a delay in impulsive reactions. Such a delay creates a pause necessary for orientation in its conditions, analysis of components, highlighting the most significant ones and correlating them with each other. Preliminary orientation in the conditions of the task is a mandatory initial stage of any thinking process.

The next key stage is associated with the selection of one of the alternatives and the formation of a general solution scheme. In the process of such a choice, some possible moves in the decision reveal themselves to be more probable and push aside inadequate alternatives. At the same time, not only the general features of this and similar situations from a person’s past experience are extracted from memory, but also information about the results that were previously obtained with similar motivations and emotional states. There is a continuous scanning of information in memory, and the dominant motivation directs this search. The nature of motivation (its strength and duration) determines the information retrieved from memory. A gradual increase in emotional tension leads to an expansion of the range of hypotheses extracted from memory, but excessive stress can narrow this range, which determines the well-known tendency towards stereotypical decisions in stressful situations. However, even with maximum access to information, a complete search of hypotheses is irrational due to the large expenditure of time.

To limit the field of hypotheses and control the order of search, a special mechanism is used, which is closely related to the person’s system of attitudes and his emotional mood. Before going through and evaluating possible approaches to solving a problem, you need to understand it, and what does it mean to understand? Understanding is usually determined by the presence of intermediate concepts connecting the conditions of the problem and the required result, and the transposability of the solution. The solution will be transposeable if a general solution principle is identified for a class of problems, that is, an invariant is identified that can be used to solve problems of other classes. Learning to identify such a general principle means obtaining a universal tool for solving problems. This is helped by training in reformulating the problem.

The main elements with which thought operates are concepts(reflection of general and essential features of any objects and phenomena), judgments(establishing a connection between objects and phenomena; it can be true and false), inferences(the conclusion of a new judgment from one or more judgments), and also images And presentations.

The basic operations of thinking include analysis(mentally dividing the whole into parts and then comparing them), synthesis(combining individual parts into a whole, constructing a whole from analytically specified parts), specification(application of general laws to a specific case, the inverse operation of generalization), abstraction(isolating any side or aspect of a phenomenon that in reality does not exist as an independent one), generalization(mental association of objects and phenomena similar in some respects), as well as comparison And classification.

It is important to note that the main mental operations can be represented as reversible pairs: analysis - synthesis, identifying similarities - identifying differences, abstraction - concretization.

The main types of thinking are theoretical(which, in turn, includes conceptual and figurative), as well as practical (to it includes visual-figurative and visual-effective).

The main properties of the mind include:
- curiosity And inquisitiveness(the desire to learn as much and thoroughly as possible);
- depth(the ability to penetrate into the essence of objects and phenomena);
- flexibility(the ability to correctly navigate new circumstances);
- criticality(the ability to question the conclusions made and promptly abandon a wrong decision);
- logic(ability to think harmoniously and consistently);
- rapidity(the ability to make the right decisions in the shortest possible time).

When studying thought processes, several types of barriers were discovered - specific obstacles in thinking, a kind of taboo. These are self-restraints associated with the inertia and conventional nature of our thinking, and admiration for living authorities (“N.N. himself was skeptical about the prospects of work in this direction”) and dead (“Poincaré even pointed out the insolubleness of a similar problem”), and prohibitions , based on a false analogy (“it’s like creating a perpetual motion machine”). One of the most effective ways to suppress new ideas is the idea that no one has the right to doubt any decision unless he himself offers a better or more demonstrative one.

To overcome the listed barriers, it is useful to analyze the entire field of hypotheses, regardless of their expected productivity, at the beginning of solving a problem. And only as the analysis progresses should it focus on an increasingly narrower area that is more closely related to the problem being solved.

To make it easier to overcome these difficulties and not to miss important hypotheses during a random search, a special method has been developed - morphological analysis. It consists of dividing the problem into functional elements and sequentially studying all possible compositions of these elements in all the diversity of their parameters. Another way to direct associations in the right direction is the method of “focal objects”. Within the framework of this approach, an analysis is made of the combination of properties of the object under study and several random, but forcibly selected ones.

Another way to avoid stereotypes in solving is the ability to purposefully modify, “shake up” the conditions of the problem. For this purpose, you can change the size of an object either downwards - to zero, or up - to infinity; you can also vary the lifetime of the object from microintervals to infinity. The same effect is achieved when splitting an object into parts, and when searching for a solution for individual parts of the fragmented object. It is advisable to use the transfer of the solution to another space or the introduction of unevenness in the spatial features of the environment or object.

Conceptual thinking provides another opportunity to optimize the solution to a problem. The use of concepts of different levels allows, moving from less generalized concepts to more generalized ones and back, to escape from the beaten path of solution.

One of the effective ways to activate thinking is a hint. It can be offered either at different (early and late) stages of solving the problem, or at the same stage, use hints of different levels - more or less specific. As a hint for solving the main problem, you can use an auxiliary problem, which is less difficult, but contains the principle for solving the main one, which can be transferred. Let's consider an example from the book by A.V. Brushlinsky. Problem: will a candle burn in a spaceship in zero gravity? Solution: weightlessness excludes convection, and combustion is impossible, since combustion products are not removed from the flame and it goes out due to the lack of oxygen. At the first stages of solving this problem, two easier auxiliary hint problems can be proposed, the solution of which is also based on the principles of convection and diffusion. Why are water heating radiators located in the room below and not upstairs? (Convection.) Why does cream in milk settle faster in a cold room? (Diffusion.)

They use a variety of hints: reporting the next step in the solution, additional data, giving an analogy. However, one must keep in mind that a hint that coincides in time with the formation of one’s own decision can sharply slow it down or completely disrupt the so-called locking effect. The blocking effect often appears in an exam if the examiner's hint, offered at the moment when the examinee has almost achieved the result, destroys the mental scheme of his own solution. He cannot even understand what is being suggested to him, he is so absorbed in the implementation of his decision.

All of the above methods of overcoming thought barriers are very effective when it is necessary to find a new, original approach to the analysis of theoretical and technical problems. However, in everyday life a person is forced to solve problems of interpersonal communication every day, and then it turns out that here it is even more difficult for him to free himself from the strict control of traditional and stereotypical approaches. In recent years, even a separate direction in psychology - the theory of attribution - has begun to develop rapidly, studying the methods of everyday, everyday thinking. The field of application of the efforts of researchers in this area is the study of the influences of the social environment on how a person, forced to act in conditions of information uncertainty, puts forward hypotheses about the causes of the observed behavior of other people.
Carl Jung considered two types of people according to the nature of their thinking: intuitive (characterized by the predominance of emotions over logic and the dominance of the right hemisphere of the brain over the left) and mental (characterized by rationality and the predominance of the left hemisphere of the brain over the right, the primacy of logic over feelings).

In psychology, the problem of thinking is closely related to the problem of speech. Human thinking and speech proceed on the basis of common elements - words. Speech arose simultaneously with thinking in the process of socio-historical development of man.

Speech is a system of sound signals, written signs and symbols used by humans to represent, process, store and transmit information.

Speech is the main acquisition of humanity, a catalyst for its improvement. Indeed, it is omnipotent; it makes accessible to knowledge those objects that a person perceives directly, that is, with which real interaction is achievable. In addition, language allows one to operate with objects that a person has never encountered before, that is, those that were not part of his individual experience, but appropriated to him from universal human experience. That is why they say that language marks the emergence of a special form of reflection of reality. The emergence of oral and written speech determined the specifics of the development of thinking.

It is known that there are concepts of varying degrees of generality and each concept has a corresponding name - a word (symbol). The participation of speech in this aspect of thinking is undeniable. It is much more difficult to imagine images that have gone through several stages of generalization. The development of written language allows us to trace the gradual transition from specific images to generalized symbols. At the origins of written language in ancient times, there were pictures that realistically depicted objects, but the relationships between objects were not depicted in them. In modern language, a word has lost any visual resemblance to the object it denotes, and the relationships between objects are represented by the grammatical structure of a sentence. The written word is the result of many stages of generalization of the original concrete visual image.

The impact of speech on other higher mental processes is no less significant and manifests itself in many ways as a factor that organizes the structure of perception, shapes the architectonics of memory and determines the selectivity of attention.

The generalized image of perception is compared with the name, and thus the reverse influence of the word on subsequent perception is predetermined. Each visual picture is perceived by a person in accordance with the concept to which he attributes the configuration.

The influence of speech on memory is no less clearly evident. As an example, we can recall that colors presented to a person for memorization are shifted in his memory to the names of the primary colors of the spectrum. However, as soon as a person is placed in conditions where he must use other categories to designate color, this shift is not observed. So, if you ask to remember a color, calling it cherry, orange or violet, and thereby correlate it with the colors of a specific, well-known object, that is, use different concepts than in the first case, then a different kind of shift is observed - in the direction of the properties of the named object . In a word, a hypothesis put forward on the basis of previous experience (memory) makes perception tendentious.

Another example: the designation in different languages of a flower called “snowdrop” in Russian, “Schneeglockchen” in German, “perce-niege” in French, and “snowdrop” in English. The origin of this word in Russian is associated with the early appearance of the flower in spring (under the snow), that is, the name draws attention to the time factor; in German, the word means “snow bell,” indicating its shape. The French name - "perce-niege" (drilling snow) is associated with movement. The English name "snowdrop" is based on another feature - shape. Although all these names for snowdrop refer to the same flower, a speaker in Russian provides additional information about the time of appearance of this flower, in German and English - about its shape, in French - about the method of its appearance. This example once again shows that a word has a significant influence on the content of information about an object stored in memory.

As special studies have shown, each word in memory is naturally connected with other words by more or less strong connections (associations). The structure where even weak connections can be traced is called the semantic field of a given word. It is assumed that the center of the field is characterized by closer connections - higher probabilities of combining these words, and the periphery contains words that form rarely occurring combinations. This organization of the semantic field of a word is manifested, for example, in the understanding of the figurative meaning of the word and humor. It is known that the use of unlikely combinations of words often causes laughter, but only active mastery of the entire semantic field of the word allows you to understand the essence of the joke and feel the low probability of the combination of words. This implies the importance of studying extensive vocabulary (and not just grammar) when mastering foreign languages.

Speaking about the main types of speech, we must emphasize that the process of exchanging thoughts is carried out in the form of oral and written speech, but it is necessary to remember about one more type - internal speech pronounced mentally. It does not perform the function of communication, but serves to carry out the thinking process (its main feature is precisely that the words are pronounced silently and, as a rule, do not have sound design; it differs from colloquial, external speech in its conciseness, brevity, fragmentary character).
Speech is also divided into active(speech of the speaker, writer) and passive(speech of the listener, reader).

A person’s speech in general and his individual speeches to those listening can be characterized by content, expressiveness and form.
A speaker in front of an audience must have a well-trained voice. The success of conveying content directed not only to the mind, but also to the feelings of the listeners, largely depends on this. It is impossible to convey the full depth of the content, to influence the audience both emotionally and aesthetically, if the voice is hoarse, hoarse and monotonous. In addition, a hoarse speaker causes listeners an irresistible need to clear their throat by coughing. Speaking of cough. The audience's cough somehow prevented the lecturer from starting his speech. In response to his request to stop coughing, the audience responded: “What do you mean stop? The cough is uncontrollable.” “Imagine - we manage,” the lecturer answered and told about the Narodnaya Volya member N.A. Morozov, who, having found himself in the Shlisselburg fortress with a focus of tuberculosis in the lungs and knowing that coughing accelerates the painful process, by an effort of will ordered himself not to cough. When he was released 30 years later, the doctors were amazed: not a trace of tuberculosis remained. “By the way,” the lecturer finished, “pay attention: during the time I was talking, not one of you coughed.”

Speech should be balanced in pace. Haste, usually caused by the speaker's timidity, creates the impression that the speaker is "getting off." Sluggish speech is also ineffective, as it causes indifference to the topic of the speech. Reading a lecture very slowly leads to a weakening of perception; pauses that occur between words impose additional semantic load on each word; words acquire an unreasonably greater emotional and substantive significance, which complicates perception.

The understandability of the speech language depends on many factors: vocabulary, length of sentences, degree of syntactic complexity of speech, its saturation with abstract expressions, foreign and special terms. It is very important to use words correctly. The inconsistency of the word used with its generally accepted meaning or stylistic norms causes negative emotions in listeners, which can negate the purpose of the speech. Overly pompous expressions make people laugh, trivial ones irritate, and incorrectly used words cause ridicule and irony. The outstanding Russian lawyer and orator A.F. Koni, who knew well the value of the accuracy of constructing a phrase, wrote: “It is worth rearranging the words in the popular expression “blood with milk” and saying “milk with blood” to see the meaning of a separate word put in its place ".

It is necessary to pay attention to the vocabulary of speech. Linguistically, judgments must be formulated in such a way as to correspond to the stock of knowledge of the listeners and, to some extent, to the nature of their expectations - social attitudes. An example of the flexible following of the changing situation in France in writing can be found in E. V. Tarle, who provides an observation of the specific selection of words in the Parisian press to describe Napoleon’s progress from the moment of his landing in Juan Bay until his entry into Paris (the Hundred Days period). The first publication: “The Corsican monster landed in the Bay of Juan”, the second - “The cannibal goes to Grasse”, the third - “The usurper entered Grenoble”, the fourth - “Bonaparte took Lyon”, the fifth - “Napoleon is approaching Fontainebleau”, the sixth - “ His Imperial Majesty is expected today in his faithful Paris." This entire literary gamut was extracted from the same newspapers, published under the same editorial staff for several days: situations changed and, along with them, words.