Psychological foundations of cognitive activity of preschool children. Psychological features and optimization of cognitive activity of preschool children Psychological features of cognitive activity

Based on the teachings of A.S. Vygotsky (4), domestic psychologists A.N. Leontiev (6), D.B. Davydov (15), L.V. Zankov (12), N.A. Menchinskaya (21), P.Ya.Galperin (6), developed the theoretical foundations of educational activities, which have a particularly favorable effect on the development of the intellectual, volitional, emotional and motivational spheres of the individual, and also ensure its equilateral education.

Proceeding from the provisions of Marxism on the role of labor in the formation of man, Soviet psychology asserts that objective activity must change and does change the type of his behavior. At the same time, a person is characterized simultaneously with objective and internal psychological activity, carried out with the help of verbal, digital and other signs. This activity leads to the psychological development of the individual.

A person especially actively masters various signs and material tools during special organized training. Social "relationships of people, manifested, in particular, in education, lead to the development of their higher mental functions. Now it is customary to briefly convey this idea of ​​L.S. Vygotsky in the form of a formula: "Education goes ahead of development."

The fundamental difference between Soviet educational psychology and many foreign concepts is that it focuses on the active formation of psychological functions, and not on their passive registration and adaptation to the existing level. Hence, the idea of ​​such a construction of training that would take into account the zone of proximal development of the personality, that is, has a very important methodological significance. it is necessary to focus not on the current level of development, but on a slightly higher one, which the student can achieve under the guidance and with the help of a teacher.

From the position general theory activity in Soviet psychology distinguish between the concepts of "learning activity" and "teaching". Educational activity is one of the main types of human activity, specifically aimed at mastering the methods of subject and cognitive actions, generalized theoretical knowledge. The concept of "learning activity" in relation to "teaching" is considered as a broader one, since it includes both the activity of the teacher and the activity of the student.

Teaching is the process of acquiring and consolidating methods of activity.

The teaching includes:

• A) the process of assimilation of information about the significant properties of the world, necessary for the successful organization of certain types of ideal and practical activities(the product of this process is knowledge);
• B) The process of mastering the techniques and operations that make up all these types of activities (the product of this process is skills);
• C) The process of mastering the ways of using the specified information for the right choice and control of techniques and operations in accordance with the conditions of the task and the goal (the product of this process is skills).

Thus, learning takes place where a person's actions are controlled by the conscious goal of acquiring certain knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Educational activity equips a person with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for various kinds socially useful activity, it also forms in a person the ability to manage their mental processes, the ability to choose, organize and direct their actions and operations, skills and experience in accordance with the task being solved. Thus, it prepares a person for work.

Modern pedagogical psychology believes that for each age period there is its own, most characteristic leading type of activity: in preschool - play, in primary school - teaching, in middle school age - a developed socially useful activity in all its variants (educational, labor, social - organizational, artistic, sports, etc.). During this period, students actively master various forms of communication. At senior school age, a special form of educational activity becomes leading, which is already more career-oriented and colored by independent moral judgments and assessments. The foregoing does not mean that at each age the student should be engaged in the leading type of activity. It is important to constantly develop all the richness of activities that ensure the comprehensive development of the individual. At the same time, the recognition of the leading types of activity allows teachers to use and shape them more actively in communication and education.

Emphasizing the leading role of activity in the development of personality, some psychologists consider learning to be a type of activity. For didactics, the point of view of the Soviet psychologist B. G. Ananiev, who saw the special role of communication in human development, along with knowledge and work, is more practical. In accordance with this concept, it is necessary to single out, when describing the learning process, not only the activity aspect, but also the aspect of communication.

In the course of knowledge and work, active assimilation of knowledge is ensured, while communication creates conditions for assimilation and activates this process. The correct organization of knowledge, learning and work is the most important condition for the successful functioning of the educational process, for the purpose of comprehensive development.

Educational and cognitive activity is accompanied by an internal mental process of assimilation by students educational information.

In accordance with the activity approach, according to some psychologists, students should not form knowledge, but certain types of activities, in which knowledge is included as a certain element. For didactics, such an interpretation of the role of knowledge is incomplete, since it does not take into account the general logic of building goals and the content of education, where the formation of knowledge is singled out as a particularly important goal. In addition, it is known that knowledge exists objectively not only in the mind of the individual, but also in the form of information stored in books, "computer banks", etc., which becomes the property of the individual in the process of cognitive activity At the same time, one cannot consider knowledge without connection with activity, because knowledge is needed, first of all, in order to act.

All of the above does not mean belittling the significance of the formation of various types of activities in students. This is provided for by the didactic requirements for the formation of practical, special and general educational skills and abilities in students, which include knowledge of how to improve these actions.

In psychology, several approaches have been developed to organize the processes of knowledge assimilation. For example, N. A. Menzhinskaya and D. N. Bogoyavlensky studied in particular detail the role of analytical and synthetic activities, comparisons, associations, generalizations based on specific knowledge, as well as the importance of independent search for signs of assimilated concepts and methods for solving new types of problems in the process of assimilation. At the same time, N. A. Menzhinskaya (4) pays great attention to the development of learning, in which she includes the generalization of mental activity, the economy of thinking, the independence of thinking, the flexibility of thinking, semantic memory, the nature of the connection between visual-figurative and abstract components of thinking. By developing these qualities of thinking in the learning process, it is possible to ensure the development of learning ability, and on this basis, the ability to increase the efficiency of the assimilation process as a whole.

D. B. Elkonin (21) and V. V. Davydov (6) studied such ways of assimilation in which generalizations appeared not traditionally: on the basis of the transition from the particular to the formally general, but on the basis of the initial acquaintance of schoolchildren with some more generalized theoretical provisions (meaningful abstractions), in order to then deductively deduce from them more particular properties, more specific knowledge about the phenomena of an objective nature. For example, they first introduce younger schoolchildren to the concepts of quantities, teach the relationships between them (more, less, etc.), and then with the natural series of numbers. In the Russian language, first they teach linguistic analysis, then grammar and syntax.

The structure of the assimilation cycle takes on new shades in the theory developed by P. Ya. the formation of an action in a material (or materialized with the help of people) form with the deployment of all the operations included in it; the formation of the action as externally speech; formation of action in external speech; the formation of action in inner speech, its transition into deep, convoluted processes of thinking. This whole chain of mental actions ensures the transition of actions from external plan to the inner. This process is called inter - interization. This concept is more applicable to explanatory - illustrative, but not to problem learning, which does not always begin with subject education, but involves the comprehension of logical problems immediately in the verbal form of the external or internal plan. Despite a number of possible approaches to characterizing learning activities, it is still possible to characterize some typical options for students under the guidance of a teacher and during completely independent learning activities, both in the classroom and at home.

It is conditionally possible to single out two typical variants of the educational activity of schoolchildren. One of them takes place during a lesson or another form of teaching schoolchildren, where the leading, guiding role is played by the teacher, the second - during the independent work of students in the classroom or when doing homework.

In the case when educational activity proceeds under the guidance of a teacher, the following educational actions of schoolchildren can be distinguished:

• - acceptance of learning objectives and action plan proposed by the teacher;
• - implementation of training activities and operations to solve the tasks;
• - regulation of educational activities under the influence of teacher control and self-control;
• - analysis of the results of educational activities carried out under the guidance of a teacher.

In the course of independent learning activities carried out without direct guidance at the moment, the following actions are usually distinguished:

• - planning or specifying the tasks of their educational activities, planning methods, means and forms of educational activities;
• - self-organization of educational activities;
• - self-regulation of teaching; self-analysis of the results of educational activities.

The structural elements of educational activity are modified depending on the nature of the educational tasks being solved, on the leading methods that are used in this case. The structure of the educational activity of schoolchildren, with the direct control of it by the teacher, is fully consistent with the structure of the teacher's actions. If the teacher plans tasks, upcoming learning activities of students, stimulates them, then the student accepts these tasks and carries out the planned actions, based on the motives that arise under the influence of the stimulating effects of the teacher. If the teacher controls the actions of the students and regulates their learning activities, then the students, under the influence of the teacher, also regulate their actions. In the same way, the analysis of learning outcomes proceeds in conjunction with their self-analysis by the student himself. In this correspondence, the structure of actions of the teacher and students is the unity of the processes of teaching and learning, which is only called the learning process. The considered interaction of teaching and learning also manifests itself in the case when the student is engaged in independent learning activities in the absence of a teacher or when performing independent work in the classroom. In this case, the teacher indirectly directs the actions of students, since before that he set tasks for them, stimulated the completion of tasks.

Like any other human activity, learning activity is polymotivated.

Motives can be of two types - external and internal. External motives include incentives such as punishment and reward, threat and demand, group pressure, expectation of future benefits, etc. All of them are external to the immediate goal of the teaching. Knowledge and skills in these cases serve only as a means to achieve other main goals (avoiding the unpleasant, achieving social or personal success, satisfying ambition).

The very goal - teaching - in such situations can be indifferent or even repulsive. The doctrine is to some extent forced in nature and acts as an obstacle that must be overcome on the way to the main goal. This situation is characterized by the presence of opposing forces. In principle, it is a conflict, therefore it is associated with significant mental stress, requires internal efforts and sometimes the struggle of the individual with himself. When the conflict is very acute, there may be tendencies to “get out of the situation” (refusal, circumvention of difficulties, neurosis). Then the student drops out of school or "breaks down" - begins to break the rules, falls into apathy. A similar structure of the educational situation is often found in school practice.

Internal motives include those that induce a person to study as their goal. An example is interest in the classes themselves, curiosity, the desire to raise the cultural level. Learning situations with such motives do not contain an internal conflict, of course, they are also associated with overcoming the difficulties encountered in the course of learning, and require volitional efforts. But these efforts are aimed at overcoming external obstacles, and not at fighting with oneself. Such situations are optimal from a pedagogical point of view; their creation is an important task for the teacher. They require the education of students, the formation of their goals, interests and ideals, and not just the management of their behavior.

A certain thing, event, situation or action become motives for activity if they are associated with the sources of a certain activity of a person. These sources can be divided into three main categories.

1. Internal sources. They are determined by human needs and can have both an innate character, expressing the organic needs of the organism, and an acquired character, expressing the social needs formed by society. The need for activity and the need for information have special meaning to stimulate learning.

So, a child from the first days of life is in a state of continuous activity - he smiles, moves, moves his arms and legs, runs, plays, talks, asks endless questions. The actions themselves give him pleasure. A person's need for information is clearly manifested in experiments when the subjects are isolated from any influences of the outside world for a certain period, for example, they are placed in a dark soundproof chamber. As a result, there are serious intellectual, emotional and volitional disorders, imbalance, melancholy, anger, apathy, loss of the ability to volitional actions, sometimes even the collapse of systematic thinking, hallucinations. In life conditions, the lack of activity and information (and sometimes their excess) gives rise to a negative state in a person, called fatigue and boredom.

Among socially formed needs, gnostic needs and positive social needs are of particular importance for stimulating learning activity. These include the need for knowledge, the desire to benefit society, the desire for socially valuable achievements, etc.

2. External sources. They are determined by the social conditions of human life. These sources include requirements, expectations, and opportunities.

Requirements offer a person certain types and forms of activity and behavior. So, parents require the child to eat with a spoon, sit on a chair, say "thank you". The school requires the student to appear at a certain time, listen to what the teacher says, and complete his tasks. Society requires the individual to observe certain moral norms and forms of human communication in behavior, to perform certain work.

Expectations characterize the relationship of society to a person, associated with the proposal of what features of behavior and forms of activity it considers normal for a given individual. So, others consider it normal for a one-year-old child to start walking, they expect this from the baby and treat him accordingly. Unlike requirements, expectations create a general atmosphere for the implementation of activities, which stimulates more than an order.

Opportunities are those objective conditions of a certain activity that exist in a person's environment. For example, a good home library encourages reading because it provides such an opportunity. Psychological analysis shows that a person's behavior largely depends on objective possibilities (especially if his personality and leading life goals have not yet been formed). Thus, a book on geometry accidentally falling into the hands of a child can determine his inclination towards mathematics.

3. Personal sources. They are determined by the interests, aspirations, attitudes, beliefs and worldview of a person, his idea of ​​himself, his attitude to society. These sources of activity are called values. Such values ​​can be self-improvement, satisfaction of certain needs, life ideals and models.

The listed sources of activity in different combinations and modifications are observed in each person. But the activity generated by them is not always molded into the form of teaching. For this, it is necessary that the needs and drives of the individual, the requirements, expectations and opportunities presented to him by the environment, his personal values ​​and attitudes, i.e. internal, external and personal stimuli of his behavior, associated with one of the aspects of the teaching (result, goal, process) or with all. Then these aspects of the teaching will turn into motives that induce to the corresponding activity. This process is called motivation. How it is achieved depends on which side of the doctrine is put forward as a motive and with what sources of activity it is associated. For example, if the results of learning are put forward as a motive, and internal sources of activity are used for motivation, then motivation is achieved by linking educational success with a reward, social approval, usefulness for future work, etc. The use of external incentives is expressed in the requirement, trust, provision of suitable opportunities. An example of personal motivation for learning outcomes is linking them to an individual's self-assessment (praise). The variety of possible methods and combinations of motivation is as extensive as life itself, as those motives that determine human activity.

Student age is characterized by the highest level of such indicators as muscle strength, reaction speed, motor agility, speed endurance, etc. As they say, this is the age of human physical perfection. Most sports records are set at this age. However, according to the data of the World Health Organization, it is students who are characterized by the worst indicators of physiological functions in their age group. They are leading in the number of patients with hypertension, tachycardia, diabetes, neuropsychiatric disorders. The reasons for this, as studies show, lie in the fact that in the process of university education, students experience strong mental stress, often destructive to health.

The teacher should take into account that these loads are especially high during the periods of control and evaluation. But it is precisely here that one of the grossest pedagogical mistakes is often made: a negative assessment of the results of mastering curriculum the teacher transfers to the assessment of the student's personality as a whole, letting the student know with the help of facial expressions, gestures, and even in verbal form that he is stupid, lazy, irresponsible, etc. Forcing the student to experience negative emotions, the teacher has a direct impact on the physical condition and health of the student.

Features of the cognitive sphere of personality are directly related to all its other substructures and personality as a whole. The successful educational activity of a student depends not only on the degree of mastery of the methods of intellectual activity; it is also determined by the personal parameters of educational activity - a stable system of student relations to the outside world and to himself.

To characterize maturity (psychophysiological and psychological), the concept of optimal functioning is used, which allows assessing the state of functions based on the results of their implementation: the higher the indicators, the closer they are to the optimal functioning. According to some reports, such an optimum for many psychophysiological and psychological functions occurs in adolescence. At this age, according to the conclusions of the well-known Soviet psychologist B. G. Ananyev, the smallest values ​​​​of the latent period of reactions to simple sensory, combined and verbal signals are noted. Early youth is characterized by optimum absolute and relative sensitivity of analyzers, the greatest plasticity and switchability of complex psychomotor skills. Compared with other ages, in adolescence there is the highest speed of operative memory, switching of attention and the maximum speed of solving verbal-logical tasks. At the same time, the volume of perception reaches its maximum by the age of 30 (T. M. Maryutina, 2005).

Along with this, intellectual development continues and changes throughout the life cycle. This is confirmed by the facts available in domestic and foreign psychology. BG Ananiev showed that the intensity of aging of intellectual functions depends on two factors: a person's giftedness (internal factor) and education (external factor). The formation of an integral functional basis of human intellectual activity occurs before the age of 35. In the period from 26 to 35 years, the integration of cross-functional systems increases, while between 35 and 46 years, the rigidity of connections between functions begins to increase. This means that along with the growth of intellectual activity and productivity in the usual professional activities, the opportunities for mastering new areas of knowledge and skills are difficult. This implies the need for a system of continuous education as a condition for the high efficiency of human intellectual functions.

A study of the dynamics of cognitive abilities (verbal and non-verbal) in people from 20 to 80 years old (Gamezo M. V., Gerasimova V. S., Gorelova G. G. et al., 1999) shows that mental abilities (such as vocabulary and mastery of abstract concepts) do not decrease until the age of 60 and change slightly by the age of 80. Studies conducted under the guidance of B. G. Ananiev showed that only 14.2% of people aged 18-35 years have periods of stagnation in psychological development, and their duration does not exceed 2-3 years. For the overwhelming majority, this is the age of intensive development.

Numerous studies have shown that uneven development of mental functions is observed at different periods of a person's life. Yes, most high degree susceptibility to professional and social experience is noted at the age of 18 to 25 years. With a slight increase in general intelligence in the period from 18 to 46 years, the ratio of attention, memory and thinking undergo significant fluctuations. Thus, studies show that between the ages of 18 and 25, thinking has a higher level of performance, while attention is relatively low. From 26 to 29 years of age, the lowest scores are found in thinking, while the highest scores are found in attention. From 30 to 33 years old, there is a coincidence of levels of attention and thinking, and at 34-35 they decline. The points of decline in the level of development of attention and thinking coincide. Points of the highest rise in attention fall on 22 years, 24 years, 26 years, while the level of thinking decreases in these years. Points of highest rise in thinking are at 20 years, 23 years, 25 years and 32 years. The level of attention in these years, with the exception of 32 years, decreases.

A decrease or increase in functional mnemonic capabilities affects the nature of a person's mental search. A decrease in mnemonic potential leads to the fact that a person begins to turn to impulse search or risky decisions. The very first peak in the development of memory falls on 19 years. Between the ages of 20 and 26, there is unevenness in the development of memory and thinking, in subsequent years, an increase begins both in the development of memory and in the development of heuristic processes, but the peak of memory falls at 30 years, while the peak of heuristic processes at 32 years. Memory decline begins at age 31, heuristic processes decline at age 33.

The highest level in the development of logical thinking is reached by 20-year-olds, in second place are 25-year-olds. The third and fourth places were shared by 19-year-olds and 32-year-olds. Next come the 24-year-olds and the 30-year-olds. The volume of short-term memory in terms of auditory modality in 20-year-olds is on the same level as 19-year-olds and slightly higher in 24-year-olds, who, in terms of the level of development of logical thinking, showed results below the average school grade. In 25-year-olds, the volume of verbal short-term memory in terms of auditory modality turned out to be at the lowest level. Thus, there is no direct influence of the level of development of short-term memory on hearing and the level of development of logical thinking.

As a rule, it is at student age that not only physical, but also psychological properties and higher mental functions reach their maximum in their development: perception, attention, memory, thinking, speech, emotions and feelings. This fact allowed B. G. Ananiev to conclude that this period of life is most favorable for education and training.

Thus, the study of memory in 18-21-year-olds showed that memory and its types at this age develop in different directions. A high level of mnemonic function is usually combined with a more even development of various processes and types of memory, which does not exclude large individual differences. Men's scale memory scores are more or less higher than women's memory scores.

Studies of age-related changes in thinking (18-21 years old) show that there is a complex unity between the types of thinking, indicating the connection of figurative, logical and effective components. If in 18-19-year-olds verbal-logical thinking is more closely connected with figurative thinking, then in 20-21-year-olds it is with practical thinking.

The volume and stability that unite individual properties around themselves act as the central properties of the attention of 18-21-year-olds. 18-year-olds show high rates of volume, switching, concentration and selectivity of attention, and the indicators of the last two properties slightly exceed those of the first. The attention span is most developed at this age. In 19-year-olds, resistance is slightly lower than in 18-year-olds. In 20-year-olds, the level of concentration increases (slightly), and the level of switching decreases more significantly. In 21-year-olds, the volume indicator increases slightly. Switching and stability turned out to be the least developed. These data indicate a wide range of changes in attention at student age.

The study of qualitative shifts in the development of intelligence in modern psychology associated with the work of J. Piaget and his followers. According to Piaget, the age of 12 to 15 years is the period of the birth of hypothetical-deductive thinking, the ability to abstract concepts from reality, formulate and sort through alternative hypotheses, and make one's own thought the subject of analysis. By the end of adolescence, a person is already able to separate logical operations from those objects on which they are performed, and classify statements, regardless of their content, according to the logical type (“if - then ...”), differences according to the type “either - or”, the inclusion of private case into a class of phenomena, a judgment of incompatibility, etc.

Along with this, studies by Soviet and foreign psychologists (P. Ya. Galperin, V. V. Davydov, A. Arlin, R. Wason and others) show:

1. the mastery of certain mental operations cannot be separated from the learning process;

2. there is a wide range of individual differences (some people have hypothetical-deductive thinking as early as 10-11 years old, others are not capable of it even in adulthood);

3. many psychologists suggest that the stage of "problem solving" (according to Piaget's periodization) is followed by the stage of "finding and posing problems";

4. formal logical thinking is not a synonym for formal logic.

Piaget himself in his latest works emphasized that teenagers and young men use their new mental qualities selectively, to those areas of activity that are most significant and interesting for them, and in other cases they can do with the same skills. Therefore, in order to reveal the real mental potential of a person, it is first necessary to single out the sphere of her primary interests, in which she reveals her abilities to the maximum, and formulate a task with an emphasis on these abilities. At the same time, the breadth of intellectual interests in early youth is often combined with dispersion, lack of a system and method. The amount of attention, the ability to maintain its intensity for a long time and switchability from one subject to another increase with age. At the same time, attention becomes also selective, dependent on the orientation of interests.

Studies of the nature of intellectual changes in students in the course of their studies at the university, which were carried out by domestic psychologists in the 70s of the XX century, showed that over the years of study at the university, the level of students' intelligence increases by 5 conventional units. units - from 116 to 121. For freshmen - the level intellectual development coincided on average with the category "good norm" (110-119 conventional units), and for graduates this indicator rises to the category "high intelligence" (120-129 conventional units).

The development of intelligence is closely related to the development creativity which involve not just the assimilation of knowledge, but the manifestation of intellectual initiative and the creation of something new. American psychologists M. Parlof, L. Datta et al. (1968) compared the personality traits of groups of creative people (adults and young men) compared to less creative ones. The results showed that creative people, regardless of age and orientation of interests, were distinguished by a developed sense of individuality, the presence of spontaneous reactions, the desire to rely on their own strengths, emotional mobility, the desire to work independently, self-confidence, poise and assertiveness. Differences in creative adults and youths were found in a set of qualities (self-control, the need for achievement and a sense of well-being), which the researchers called "disciplined efficiency". Creative adults received lower scores for this group of qualities, while creative young men received higher scores. This is explained by the fact that youth is psychologically more mobile and prone to hobbies. To become creatively productive, a young man needs more intellectual discipline and composure, which differs from impulsive and scattered peers. Whereas an adult, involuntarily, gravitates towards the familiar, stable: the creative principle in him manifests itself in him in a less constrained organizational framework.

Thus, youth is an important stage in the development mental abilities human: creative thinking develops intensively, the ability to generalize, the ability to abstract thinking increases. At the forefront in youth is the ability to search for original, non-stereotypical solutions, the realization of one's worldview, the achievement of life goals. If the teacher does not develop precisely these abilities, the student may acquire the skill of semi-mechanical memorization of the material being studied, which leads to an increase in ostentatious erudition, but hinders the development of intelligence. The results of special surveys show that the majority of students have a very low level of development of such intellectual operations as comparison, classification, definition. The teacher often has to make great efforts to overcome the schoolboy attitude to learning: focusing only on the result of intellectual activity and indifference to the very process of thought movement. Only a little more than half of the students improve their intellectual development from the first year to the fifth, and, as a rule, such an increase is observed in weak and average students, and the best students often leave the university with the same level of intellectual abilities they came with (Dyachenko M. I., Kandybovich L. A., 1978).

The most important ability that a student must acquire at a university is, in fact, the ability to learn, which will radically affect his professional development, as it determines his opportunities in postgraduate continuous education. Even more important is the ability to acquire knowledge independently, based on creative thinking.

Teaching as an activity takes place where a person's actions are controlled by the conscious goal of acquiring certain knowledge, skills, and abilities. Teaching is a specifically human activity, and it is possible only at that stage in the development of the human psyche, when he is able to regulate his actions with a conscious goal. The Teaching makes demands on cognitive processes (memory, intelligence, imagination, mental flexibility) and volitional qualities (attention control, regulation of feelings, etc.).

The founder of the activity theory of learning is L. S. Vygotsky, who introduced fundamental changes in the theoretical ideas about the learning process. He considered teaching as a specific activity in which the formation of mental neoplasms takes place through the appropriation of cultural and historical experience. The sources of development, therefore, are not in the child himself, but in his activity of learning, aimed at mastering the ways of acquiring knowledge.

The basic concepts of this theory are:

• - learning as a system of organizing learning methods, i.e. the transfer of socio-historical experience to the individual, the purpose of this activity is the systematic, purposeful mental development of the individual;
• - teaching, or educational activity, - social activity, in terms of content and functions, representing a special type of cognitive activity of the subject, performed in order to acquire a certain composition of knowledge, skills, intellectual skills;
• - assimilation - the main link in the process of learning, the process of reproduction by an individual of historically formed generic abilities.

The starting point in teaching is the need-motivational aspect. Cognitive need is a prerequisite for the activity of teaching, on the other hand, its result (formed motive). Educational activity is considered from the point of view of the formation of cognitive motivation. The process of learning in the conditions of its proper organization can become a condition for changing the structure of the motivational-need sphere of the personality.

The second aspect that characterizes learning activity is related to the consideration of its constituent structural components.

Each type of activity determines its subject. It seems that the subject of learning activity is a generalized experience of knowledge, differentiated into separate sciences. The paradox of educational activity lies in the fact that, while assimilating the knowledge itself, a person does not change anything in it. The subject of changes in educational activity is the subject itself, carrying out this activity. Samos is the main thing in educational process- this is a turn on oneself, an assessment of one's own changes.

In educational activity, its subject, means, methods, product, result, actions, structure are distinguished (generalized characteristics are presented in Table 7.1).

Table 7.1

The subject of the educational activities	Assimilation of knowledge, mastery of generalized methods of action, development of techniques and methods of action, their programs, algorithms, in the process of which the student himself develops
Means of educational activity	1 - intellectual mental actions (analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification, etc.); 2 - linguistic sign means in the form of which knowledge is acquired; 3 - background initial knowledge
Ways of learning activities	1 - reproductive; 2 - problem-creative; 3 - research and cognitive activities; 4 - transition from external, objective actions to internal, mental actions
Product of educational activity	1 - structured knowledge; 2 - the ability to solve scientific and professional problems; 3 - internal neoplasms: the formation of theoretical thinking; 4 - accumulation of individual experience through the assimilation of the socio-historical experience of mankind
The result of educational activity	1 - the need to continue learning, interest, satisfaction from learning, or 2 - unwillingness to learn, negative attitude towards school
External structure of learning activity	1 - learning motivation; 2 - learning situation; 3 - learning task; 4 - problem solving through learning activities; 5 - teacher control; 6 - teacher's assessment
Learning objectives	1 - goal, task requirements; 2 - initial conditions of the subject of the problem: relations between objects; 3 - model of the required state of the subject of the task; 4 - task operator (a set of those actions that must be performed on the condition of the task in order to complete its solution)

The main characteristics of educational activities:

• 1) specifically aimed at mastering educational material and solving educational problems ;
• 2) it teaches general methods of action and scientific concepts ;
• U) general methods of action precede the solution of problems, there is an ascent from the general to the particular ;
• 4) learning activity leads to changes in the person himself - the student ;
• 5) there are changes in the mental properties and behavior of the student "depending on the results of their own actions."

The original concept of educational activity was proposed by V. V. Davydov. In the process of mastering educational activity, a person reproduces not only knowledge and skills, but also the very ability to learn, which arose at a certain stage in the development of society. With regard to the activities of the teaching, its product is the change of man himself. He changes himself, acquiring new knowledge. These are the products of his activity: new cognitive possibilities, new practical actions.

The activity of teaching is self-change, self-development of man. psychological content, the subject of educational activity is the assimilation of knowledge, the mastery of generalized methods of action, in the process of which the student himself develops.

According to D. B. Elkonin, learning activity is not identical to assimilation. It is its main element.

Learning activity ispublic character : content, since it is aimed at assimilating all the riches of culture and, accumulated by humanity] in terms of the meaning of y because it is socially significant and appreciated; in form, since it corresponds to socially developed norms of communication and takes place in special public institutions, for example, school, gymnasiums, colleges, institutes.

Teaching is aimed at satisfying the cognitive need. It is only then proper activity when it satisfies the cognitive need. Knowledge, to the mastery of which the teaching is directed, in this case act as a motive in which the cognitive need of the student found its substantive embodiment, and at the same time act as the goal of the activity of the doctrine.

If the student does not have a cognitive need, then he will either not study, or he will study in order to satisfy some other need. In the latter case, learning is no longer an activity, since the acquisition of knowledge in itself does not lead to the satisfaction of the subject's needs, but serves only as an intermediate goal. Teaching becomes an action that realizes another activity.

So, teaching can have a different psychological meaning for a student: a) respond to a cognitive need, which acts as a motive for learning, i. as the "engine" of his educational activities;

b) serve as a means to achieve other goals. In this case, the motive for performing the learning activity is this other goal.

Outwardly, the activity of all students is similar; internally, psychologically, it is very different. This difference is determined primarily by the motives of activity. They determine for a person the meaning of the activity performed by him. The nature of learning motives is a decisive link when it comes to ways to improve the effectiveness of learning activities. The following types of motives are distinguished.

• 1. The motives inherent in the learning activity itself, related to its direct product:
  • a) motives related to the content of the doctrine (learning is motivated by the desire to learn new facts, to acquire knowledge, methods of action, to penetrate the essence of phenomena);
  • b) motives associated with the learning process (learning is encouraged by the desire to display intellectual activity, the need to think, reason in the classroom, overcome obstacles in the process of solving difficult problems).
• 2. Motives associated with the indirect product of learning, with what lies outside the educational activity itself:
  • a) broad social motives:
    • - motives of duty and responsibility to society, class, teacher, etc.,
    • - motives for self-determination (understanding the importance of knowledge for the future, the desire to prepare for future work, etc.) and self-improvement (to develop as a result of learning);
  • b) narrow-minded motives:
    • - motives for well-being (the desire to get approval from teachers, parents, classmates, the desire to get good grades),
    • - prestigious motives (the desire to be among the first students, to be the best, to take a worthy place among comrades);
  • c) negative motives (avoidance of troubles that may arise from teachers, parents, classmates if the student does not study well).

Character learning motivation may differ in different ages: for example, the main motivating motive for learning activities in conditions traditional learning turns out to be a mark for younger schoolchildren (65.8%). The development of learning motives goes in two ways:

• 1) through the assimilation by students of the social meaning of the teaching;
• 2) through the very educational activity of the student, which should interest him in some way.

Studies have shown that the cognitive interests of schoolchildren significantly depend on the ways in which the subject is taught. As VF Morgun's study showed, both its content and the method of working with it can motivate a positive attitude to the study of a given subject. So, if the learning activity acquires a creative character for the student, it arouses his interest in studying this subject. Great importance to increase interest in the subject being studied, there is a group cohesion of students working in small groups. In groups where there was no cohesion, the attitude to the subject deteriorated sharply. On the contrary, in close-knit groups, interest in the subject being studied increased significantly.

In the study of M. V. Matyukhina, it was found that it is also possible to successfully form educational and cognitive motivation using the relationship between the motive and the purpose of the activity.

The goal set by the teacher should become the goal of the student. The best way to move is from motive to goal, i.e. when the student already has a motive that encourages him to strive for the goal set by the teacher. Unfortunately, in practice, such situations are rare. As a rule, the movement goes from the goal set by the teacher to the motive. In this case, the efforts of the teacher are aimed at ensuring that the goal set by him is accepted by the students, i.e. motivationally provided. Here it is important, first of all, to use the goal itself as a source of motivation, to turn it into a motive-goal.

One of the effective means of promoting cognitive motivation is problematic learning. At each stage it is necessary to use problem situations, tasks. If the teacher does this, then usually the motivation of the students is at a fairly high level.

The psychological form of successful learning can be characterized by the conditional formula:

where M - motivation; 1 P - reception (or search) of information; 2 P - understand the information; 3 P - remember; 4 P - apply information; C - systematic training.

Learning activity combines not only cognitive functions (perception, attention, memory, thinking, imagination), but also needs, motives, emotions, and will.

Motivation - motivating forces that move the student to the goal of learning. Objects of the external world, representations, ideas, feelings and experiences, in a word, everything in which the need has found embodiment (L.I. Bozhovich) can act as motives.

The concept of motivation includes all types of motives: motives, needs, interests, aspirations, goals, drives, ideals, etc., which directly determine human activity (EV Shorokhova). Four components can be distinguished in the structure of motivation: pleasure from the activity itself; the significance for the individual of the direct result of the activity; motivating power of reward for activity; coercive pressure on a person (B. I. Dodonov).

Motives can be external and internal. External motives include punishment and reward, threat and demand, material gain, group pressure, expectation of future benefits, etc. All of them are external to the immediate goal of the teaching. Knowledge and skills in these cases serve only as a means to achieve other main goals (avoiding the unpleasant, achieving social or personal success, gain, career, satisfaction of ambition). The goal itself - teaching - in such situations can be indifferent or even repulsive, and teaching is often forced.

Internal motives include those that encourage a person to study as their goal (interest in knowledge itself, curiosity, the desire to improve the cultural and professional level, the need for active and new information).

The development of cognitive interest goes through three main stages: situational cognitive interest arising in conditions of novelty, uncertainty, etc.; sustained interest in a certain subject content of the activity; the inclusion of cognitive interests in the general orientation of the individual, in the system of his life goals and plans. As a very effective means of enhancing the cognitive activity of students, the novelty of teaching methods, the involvement of students in its experimental form, should be especially noted.

The emergence and development of cognitive motivation is largely due to the type of interaction and communication between the teacher and students, as well as students among themselves.

The development of cognitive motivation of students depends on the pedagogical skills of the teacher, his ability to properly organize the activities of students, encourage them to develop cognitive motivation.

Regardless of whether the teaching is aimed at satisfying what need (specific to it or not), it is always realized by an action or a chain of actions.

The means of educational activity, with the help of which it is carried out, are: intellectual actions, mental operations (analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification, etc.); sign language means in the form of which knowledge is assimilated.

Ways of learning activity can be varied: reproductive, problem-creative, research and cognitive activities (V. V. Davydov).

In educational activity, in contrast to research activity, a person begins not with a consideration of the sensory-concrete diversity of reality, but with the universal internal basis of this diversity already identified by others (researchers). Thus, in educational activity there is an ascent from the abstract to the concrete, from the general to the particular.

The main product of educational activity in the proper sense of the word is the formation of a student's theoretical consciousness and thinking. The nature of all knowledge acquired in the course of further education depends on the formed theoretical thinking, which replaces empirical thinking.

Learning activity has an external structure consisting of the following elements:

• 1) motivation;
• 2) learning tasks in certain situations in different form assignments;
• 3) learning activities;
• 4) control turning into self-control;
• 5) appraisal that turns into self-assessment.

learning task acts as a specific educational task that has a clear goal, but in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to take into account the conditions under which the action must be carried out. According to A. N. Leontiev, a task is a goal given under certain conditions. As the learning tasks are completed, the student himself changes. Learning activity can be represented as a system of learning tasks that are given in certain learning situations and involve certain learning activities.

The learning task is a complex system information about some object, a process in which only part of the information is clearly defined, and the rest is unknown, which needs to be found using existing knowledge and solution algorithms, combined with independent guesses and the search for optimal solutions.

E. I. Mashbits formulated the basic requirements for the design of educational tasks:

• - educational tasks should ensure the assimilation of the system of means necessary and sufficient for the successful implementation of educational activities;
• - the learning task should be constructed in such a way that the appropriate means of activity, the assimilation of which is expected in the process of solving problems, act as a direct product of the students' actions, a direct product of learning.

The learning task is given in a specific learning situation. The learning situation can be conflict (an interpersonal conflict situation hinders learning) and collaborative, and in terms of content it can be problematic or neutral. The problem situation is given to the student in the form of questions: “Why?”, “How?”, “What is the reason, the connection of these phenomena?”

The task arises here as a consequence of the problem situation as a result of its analysis, but if the student does not accept, understand, and is not interested in the problem situation, it cannot develop into a task. Its solution, the implementation of educational activities is possible only on the basis of the implementation of educational actions and operations.

Learning activity as a whole includes a number of specific actions and operations of different levels. I. I. Ilyasov refers to the executive educational actions of the first level:

• a) actions of understanding the content of educational material;
• b) the actions of processing educational material.

In addition to executive actions to understand and process the material, control actions take place in parallel with them, the nature and composition of which depend on the same conditions as the composition of executive actions (the source and form of obtaining educational information). Along with mental actions, perceptual and mnemonic actions and operations, reproductive (performing, template) and productive (aimed at creating a new) actions are realized in educational actions.

Thus, the set of actions and operations that a student performs in the process of learning activities includes:

• 1) general actions (logical techniques and psychological skills) and specific (objective) actions;
• 2) goal-setting actions;
• 3) programming actions;
• 4) planning activities;
• 5) executive actions: verbal; material, practical; "thought-logical"; "perceptual"; "mnemonic"; "reproductive"; "productive"; "transformative"; "research"; research and reproduction;
• 6) actions of control (self-control);
• 7) assessment activities (self-assessment).

Static and dynamic models of educational activity are presented in fig. 7.2.

Rice. 7.2.

The efficiency and effectiveness of educational activities also depend on the individual psychological characteristics, abilities, and level of learning of the student.

A person's learning ability is one of the main indicators of his readiness for learning, for mastering knowledge, spontaneously or purposefully, in the conditions of any particular educational system.

Learning psychophysiologically correlates with such a property of the nervous system as dynamism, i.e. the rate of formation of a temporary connection (V. D. Nebylitsyn). Learning in the broadest sense of the word can be interpreted as a potential opportunity to acquire new knowledge in friendly “work with adults” (B. V. Zeigarnik), as a “zone of proximal development” (L. S. Vygotsky). The concept of “special” learning ability is highlighted as the preparedness of the psyche for its rapid development in a certain direction., to a certain area of ​​knowledge, skills.

Z. I. Kalmykova, one of the leading domestic researchers of the problem of learning, understands learning as"a set (ensemble) of a person's intellectual properties, on which, in the presence and relative equality of other necessary conditions (the initial minimum of knowledge, a positive attitude to learning, etc.), the productivity of educational activity depends." In this definition, learning is linked to productivity.

Productivity refers primarily to quality., rate of work its volume per unit of time, lack of tension and fatigue for a long period, job satisfaction. The productivity of educational activity can be characterized by these parameters in relation to the knowledge being mastered and the generalized methods of action being formed.

According to A. K. Markova, learning is"the susceptibility of the student to the assimilation of new knowledge, his readiness to move to new levels of mental development."

The main indicators of learning are: pace advancement in the development of knowledge and the formation of skills, ease this development (lack of tension, fatigue, experience of satisfaction from mastering knowledge), flexibility in switching to new ways and methods of work, strength preservation of learned material. Individual differences of trainees in educational activities according to G. Klaus (Table 7.2).

Table 7.2

The end of the table. 7.2

Parameter comparisons	positive type	negative type
Motivation	Willingly, voluntarily, on one's own initiative, actively, included, enthusiastically, diligently, diligently, with all one's strength	Reluctantly, out of duty, under pressure, passively, sluggishly, indifferently, negligently, lazily
Regulation action	Performs independently, autonomously, independently, systematically, purposefully, persistently, constantly	Performs dependently, imitating, aimlessly, haphazardly, without a plan, periodically, unsteadily
cognitive organization	Consciously, with understanding, purposefully, foreseeing the consequences, rationally, economically	Mechanically, without understanding, by trial and error, by chance, unintentionally, irrationally, inefficiently
Overall score

The total indicator of learning, according to 3. I. Kalmykova, is economy and the pace of thinking; the amount of specific material on the basis of which the solution of a new problem is achieved, the number of "steps" for its independent solution and portions of dosed assistance, on the basis of which the result was achieved, as well as the time spent on the solution; ability to self-learning; performance and endurance. Significant indicators of learning proposed by A. K. Markova, which are:

• - activity of orientation in new conditions;
• - initiative in choosing optional solutions, independent recourse to more difficult tasks can be correlated with the concept of intellectual initiative as a unit of creative activity (according to D. B. Bogoyavlenskaya);
• - perseverance in achieving the goal and "noise immunity" as the ability to work in situations of interference, distraction, obstacles;
• - susceptibility, willingness to help another person, lack of resistance.

The learning ability of the subject of educational activity is manifested in its features and nature, influencing the style of this activity. The developed individual styles can be schematically represented by two poles: "positive" - ​​"negative". The table below illustrates the content of learning activities that reflect such styles, which are largely based on the underlying learning ability.

Learnability is a dynamic characteristic; in different age periods, the learning ability of the same person can change: increase or decrease. Nevertheless, groups of students with varying degrees of learning are clearly distinguished: from high to medium, to underestimated and low.

The first year of a child's life can be conditionally divided into two stages - the neonatal period, which lasts from four to six weeks and ends with the appearance of the revitalization complex, and the infancy period, which ends in a year.

The neonatal stage is the time of the child's adaptation to new, extra-uterine conditions of life, the lengthening of the period of wakefulness compared to the period of sleep, the formation of the first reactions necessary for mental development - visual and auditory concentration (the ability to focus on a sound or visual signal), the appearance of the first combination or conditioned reflexes, such as the feeding position.

At the same time, a pattern begins to appear that is characteristic of the general direction of development of children in the first years of life and significantly distinguishes them from young animals. It lies in the fact that the development of sensory processes (vision, hearing, touch) significantly outstrips the development of motor skills in human infants, while in animals, on the contrary, movements develop earlier than the sense organs.

Visual and auditory concentration, which occur at 4-5 and 3 weeks, respectively, actually lay the foundation for the transition from sensations to perception, to the ability to see the object as a whole, in the totality of its properties, as well as follow the movement of the object with your eyes or turn your head behind a moving sound source. . These reactions develop according to the dominant principle - at the moment of concentration, all other reactions of the child stop, he freezes and concentrates only on the sound or object that attracted his attention. On the basis of these formed reactions, a revitalization complex is born, which is an indicator of the transition to a new stage of development - infancy. The revitalization complex is also a kind of dominant, since at this moment all other needs for the child lose their significance. When an adult approaches him, he freezes, and then begins to vigorously move his arms and legs, smile, walk - in a word, do everything to attract attention to himself.

Such a reaction to an adult proves that close people are not just a necessary condition for development for an infant, but its source. This is also the essential difference between human infants and animal cubs - the environment, communication with adults, the surrounding culture, language not only accelerate or slow down the pace of development, favoring or, conversely, preventing the formation, formation of certain qualities, but also direct this development, enrich it new content that can significantly change the self-development of children. It is important to remember this for all adults who surround children from the first days of their lives.

The reaction to an adult is not only the first psychological reaction child, but also his first social reaction. L. S. Vygotsky, speaking about the development of infants, wrote that this is the maximum social being, and this is partly true, since the child is completely dependent on an adult who satisfies all his needs. The child itself could never have survived; it is the adult, surrounding him with attention, care and care, that helps him to develop normally. Dependence on adult care is also associated with the fact that in the first months of life, sensory development dominates in human infants, while motor development dominates in animal cubs. The development of perception throughout the first years of life, in fact, the entire preschool age, is one of the most important mental processes. From the development of perception at this age, as will be shown later, other cognitive processes, primarily thinking, also depend to a large extent.

However, the role of an adult is not limited to caring for a child and creating favorable conditions for the development of perception. Studies by many psychologists (M.I. Lisina, L.I. Bozhovich, E. Erickson, A. Adler, A. Freud, J. Bowlby, etc.) have shown that in the first months of life, emotional contact and attachment are extremely important for a child. and the protection that comes from a close adult. Proving that the leading activity in infancy is emotional and personal communication with an adult, M.I. Lisina conducted a series of experiments in which she showed that cognitive development (and not just the development of emotions and speech) is largely determined by communication with an adult. Ethnopsychological studies have also shown that children who have constant tactile contact with their mother (for example, are tied behind her back, as in many African tribes), develop faster.

By the end of infancy, almost all the properties of children's perception are formed - constancy, correctness, objectivity, consistency. The appearance of these properties is associated with the development of children's locomotion, movement in space, thanks to which they learn to see an object from different angles of view, recognize it in different combinations, from different distances and from various angles of view. The first sensory standards appear - permanent images of surrounding objects. With these standards, children correlate new objects perceived in the world around them. Since the first standards are not yet generalized and reflect the properties of specific objects, they are called subject standards.

The main patterns and norms of the mental development of infants were established in the first decades of the 20th century. thanks to the research of N. M. Shchelovanov and A. Gesell.

A systematic study of the genesis of the development of the child's psyche was begun by N. M. Shchelovanov as early as 1922 with the opening of the laboratory of genetic reflexology. The method used in the laboratory consisted in continuous, systematic observation of the child with registration of all his reactions arising under the influence of external and internal stimuli. The method of the reflexological experiment was also used, i.e. the formation of artificial associative reflexes in infants (for example, a reflex to milk in a horn of a certain shape and color).

N.M. Shchelovanov and his collaborators N.L. Figurina and P. M. Denisova established the most important patterns of development of children during the periods of newborn and infancy. They recorded the dynamics of the transition from sleep to wakefulness, described the development of sensory analyzers, showed the possibility of the formation of the first conditioned reflexes in the second or third month of life. They discovered and described visual and auditory concentration, established standards for the development of memory and perception in infants, and identified the stages in the formation of motor skills and sensorimotor coordination in the first year of life. A revival (the term was introduced into psychology by these scientists) and a crisis of one year were discovered. On the basis of the data obtained, criteria for diagnosing the mental development of infants were developed, which are also used in modern practical psychology with some modifications.

A great contribution to the study of the mental development of infants was made by American psychologist A.L. Gesell. Gesell - creator of the Yale Clinic of Normal Childhood, which studied the mental development of children early age- from birth to 3 years. The periods of infancy and early childhood were at the center of Gesell's scientific interests, since he believed that in the first 3 years of life a child goes through most of his mental development, since the rate of this development is maximum in the first 3 years, and then gradually slows down with time.

Studies of the rate of mental development of children led another well-known psychologist, V. Stern, to the idea that the individual rate of mental development, which manifests itself primarily in the speed of learning, is one of the most important individual properties of the child. Proceeding from this, Stern, who was one of the founders of differential psychology, argued that there is not only a normativity common to all children of a certain age, but also an individual normativity that characterizes a particular child. Therefore, a violation of the individual pace of development can lead to serious deviations, including neuroses.

Gesell's studies, in contrast to the works of Shchelovanov, were aimed not at analyzing the patterns of development of the psyche in the first 3 years of life, but at establishing the normative nature of this development. The Gesell clinic developed special equipment for the objective diagnosis of the dynamics of the mental development of young children, including film and photography, the “Gesell mirror” (semi-permeable glass used for objective observation of the behavior of children). He also introduced new research methods into psychology - longitudinal (a method of studying the same children over a certain period of time, most often from birth to adolescence) and twin (comparative analysis of the mental development of monozygotic twins). Based on these studies, a system of tests was developed for children from 3 months to 6 years old in the following parameters: motor skills, speech, adaptive behavior, personal and social behavior. In a modified form, these tests also underlie the modern diagnosis of the mental development of infants.

During the first year of life, not only perception and movement, but also memory are actively developing. It is at this time that everything is formed. genetic species memory - emotional, motor, figurative, verbal. Emotional memory is, according to some sources, already in the fetus. In an infant, this type of memory is the main one in the first weeks of life, it helps him navigate reality, fixing his attention and directing his senses to the most emotionally important objects. At 7-9 weeks, motor memory also arises, the child can remember and repeat some movement, habitual gestures begin to form in him - the beginning of future operations. At 4 months, children develop a figurative memory (first in the form of recognition of familiar objects), and at 8-9 months - a reproduction of what the child saw earlier. As the emergence of motor memory contributes to the organization of movements, locomotion of children, so the appearance of figurative memory significantly affects his communication and the formation of the motivational sphere. With the development of recognition, the child begins to differentiate the surrounding adults, to recognize pleasant and unpleasant people. His reaction to them is also differentiated - animation and a smile on pleasant ones are replaced by crying at the sight of unpleasant faces. The development of reproduction stimulates the appearance of the first motives, or, as L. I. Bookovich calls them, motivating ideas of the child, which contribute to the formation of his personality, the development of independence from environment. If earlier an adult could regulate the child's behavior by changing the situation, removing, for example, unpleasant objects and offering the child pleasant ones, now, with the advent of reproduction, the child is less dependent on the surrounding conditions, since he develops stable desires associated with objects or situations, which are preserved in his memory. Thus, constant impulses or motives arise that direct the activity of the child.

The mindset of babies also develops. By the end of the first year of life, children develop manual intellect, or visual-effective thinking, which is built on the basis of trial and error and is associated with the “development of the first independent movements, locomotions of the child.” Of great importance is the development of orientation - reactions to new objects, the desire to examine them . No wonder A. V. Zaporozhets, who studied cognitive development in the first years of life, emphasized that various mental processes are, in fact, different types of orientation in the world around. Thus, perception, in his opinion, is an orientation in the properties and qualities of objects, thinking - in the relationships and connections between them, and emotions - in their personal sense. Therefore, the time during which the child examines a new object, as well as the number of analyzers that participate in this process, is an important indicator of the infant's intellectual development. The longer the child examines a new toy, the more different qualities he discovers in it, the higher his intellectual level.

In the first year of life, speech begins to develop, primarily passive - the child listens and distinguishes sounds. Significant, autonomous speech of children also appears (recall that at this age the development of external there is talk from word to sentence, and internal - from sentence to word).

Of great importance for understanding the mental development of children in the first year of life are the data obtained in the works of E. Erickson. From his point of view, each stage of the formation of identity not only forms a new one, necessary for social life quality, but also prepares the child for the next life period. All stages contribute to the formation of opposite qualities and character traits that a person realizes in himself and with which he begins to identify himself. Highlighting the period of the year as the first stage of mental development, Erickson believed that at this time the psyche is determined mainly by close people, parents, who form in the child a sense of basic trust or distrust, that is, openness to the world or alertness, closeness. Basic trust subsequently allows children to treat others kindly, without fear and an internal barrier to communicate with new, unfamiliar people. To some extent, Erickson's work shows that the motivation for communication is laid during this period. In this, Erickson's concept is very close to M. I. Lisina's data on the significance for the baby emotional communication with adults.

The English psychologist and psychiatrist J. Bowlby also wrote about this, proving that a close emotional connection between mother and child is established during infancy. Violation of this connection, as mentioned above, leads to serious deviations in the mental development of the child. In the 1950s in England, and later in other countries, Bowlby's work contributed to a change in the conditions of hospitalization of young children who are now not separated from their mother.

The development of perception, thinking, the formation of emotional contacts with others, as well as the emergence of one's own motives for behavior change the social situation of the development of the infant, which moves to a new level. Associated with this is the emergence of a critical period, including its negative components such as stubbornness, aggression, negativism, and resentment. As a rule, these manifestations are unstable and disappear with the end of the crisis, but if the aspirations and activity of the child are completely ignored, they can become the basis for the formation of stable negative personality traits.

The main neoplasm of the neonatal period is a kind of mental life. During the first weeks of life, a child learns to find a nipple, suck a fist, a leg, fix with a glance and track the movement of a moving object (at a distance of 30 cm - colored toys), smile at the sight of a human face, and also keep his head in a prone position. The neonatal period ends by the end of the first month of life. The psychological sign of the end of this period is the appearance of a smile at the sound of a human voice.

After the end of the neonatal period, the main mental neoplasm is a certain commonality, a special connection between the infant and the mother. This contact serves as the starting point for awareness of one's own personality. This is supported by 2 factors:

• 1. The baby cannot distinguish from the outside world and become aware of his own body (legs, arms, foreign objects). The mental life of an infant is devoid of its center of consciousness, therefore, it has no self-consciousness, but there are vaguely felt and experienced impressions.
• 2. It has been experimentally established that for an infant, social relations and attitudes towards objects are directly merged at the beginning. His interest in objects depends on the possibility of a shared situation with another person.

By the end of the fourth month of life, babies smile not only at the sight of a person. They may already put on a smile on their face in a situation that is far from unpleasant and begin to make sounds. Smiles are very often not similar to one another. Scientists have about 70 smiles of various kinds. Communication of an adult child in the first year of life is the leading type of child activity

The first motor reactions of a newborn are built on the basis of motor reflexes. A particularly important role is played by the mastery of active movement in space (crawling, and then walking), grasping objects and manipulating them. Crawling is the first type of independent movement of the child.

By the end of infancy, children show great imitation, repeating many actions after adults. Deliberate action and imitation testify to a rapidly developing intellect. Thus, the child learns to think in action, imitating his own and other people's movements.

By the end of infancy, the assimilation of speech acquires an active character, becoming one of the important means of expanding the possibilities of communication between a child and an adult. The beginning and end of autonomous speech mark the beginning and end of the crisis of the first year of life.

Thus, in the process of development, a unique individual identity of the individual is formed. They are manifested in the functional characteristics of the nervous system, in mental, emotional, moral, volitional qualities, in the needs, interests, abilities and character traits of children and adults. In the process of development, a unique individual identity of the individual is formed.

The mental development of a person goes through a series of periods that successively replace each other. Their consistent change is irreversible and predictable. Each period is a segment life path person and at the same time a certain degree of his development as a person. Within the boundaries of each age period, not only quantitative, but also qualitative changes in the psyche occur, which give reason to single out certain stages in it, successively replace each other in the process of mental development, and its results are typological and individual differences. They are manifested in the functional characteristics of the nervous system, in mental, emotional, moral, volitional qualities, in the needs, interests, abilities and character traits of children and adults.

1. Attention and its features 2

2. Memory and its types. Patterns and individual features of memory 4

3. Thinking as a process. Types and types of thinking 7

List of sources used 11

Attention and its features

Attention is the concentration and focus of mental activity on a specific object, which implies an increase in the level of sensory, intellectual and motor activity. Attention is a basic mental process that “feeds” all other mental functions and activities. It provides an organized and purposeful selection of incoming information, selective and long-term concentration of mental activity on an object or activity, as well as directionality and selectivity of cognitive processes. Attention determines the accuracy and detail of perception, the strength and selectivity of memory, the direction and productivity of thinking and imagination.

Attention is one of the phenomena of orienting-research activity. It is a mental action aimed at the content of an image, thought or other phenomenon.

Attention is always focus on something. In the selection of one object from the mass of others, the so-called selectivity of attention is manifested: interest in one is simultaneous inattention to another.

Attention in itself is not a special cognitive process. It is inherent in any cognitive process (perception, thinking, memory) and acts as the ability to organize this process.

Attention plays an essential role in the regulation of intellectual activity. According to P.Ya. Galperin, "attention nowhere appears as an independent process, it is revealed as the direction, mood and concentration of any mental activity on its object, only as a side or property of this activity."

Attention is connected with the interests, inclinations, vocation of a person, such personal qualities as observation, the ability to note subtle, but significant signs in objects and phenomena, also depend on his characteristics.

Attention consists in the fact that a certain idea or sensation occupies a dominant place in consciousness, displacing others. This greater degree of awareness of a given impression is the basic fact or effect of attention.

Types of attention

Kind of attention	Condition occurrence	Main characteristic	Mechanism
involuntary	The action of a strong, contrasting or significant stimulus that causes an emotional response	Involuntariness, ease of occurrence and switching	Orienting reflex or dominant, characterizing a more or less stable interest of the individual
Arbitrary	Statement (acceptance) of the problem	Orientation according to the task. Requires willpower, tiresome	The leading role of the second signaling system (words, speech)
Post-voluntary	Entry into activities and the resulting interest	Maintaining focus and relieving stress	Dominant characterizing the interest that arose in the course of this activity

Attention is characterized by various qualities or properties. Attention has a complex functional structure formed by the interrelationships of its main properties.

Attention properties are divided into:

Primary

- volume, concentration

stability

intensity

secondary

fluctuations and shifting of attention

distribution of attention

Concentration - the degree of concentration of attention on the object; volume - the number of objects that can be covered by attention at the same time; switching - intentional conscious transfer of attention from one object to another; distribution - the ability to keep several objects in the sphere of attention at the same time, to perform several types of activities; stability- the duration of focusing attention on the object.

Memory and its types. Patterns and individual characteristics memory

Memory is a form of mental reflection, which consists in fixing, preserving and subsequent reproduction of past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activities or return to the sphere of consciousness. Memory connects the subject's past with his present and future and is the most important cognitive function underlying development and learning.

Memory is the basis of mental activity. Without it, it is impossible to understand the foundations of the formation of behavior, thinking, consciousness, subconsciousness. Therefore, in order to better understand a person, it is necessary to know as much as possible about our memory.

Amnesia is the absence of memory. Basic memory processes: memorization, preservation, reproduction, recognition, forgetting. Types of memory:

1. Involuntary memory(information is remembered by itself without special memorization, and in the course of performing activities, in information processing progress). Strongly developed in childhood, weakens in adults.

2 . Arbitrary memory(information is memorized purposefully With using special techniques). The efficiency of arbitrary memory depends on:

1. From the goals of memorization (how firmly, for a long time a person wants to remember). If the goal is to learn in order to pass the exam, then soon after the exam a lot will be forgotten, if the goal is to learn for a long time, for future professional activity, then the information is not forgotten much.

2. From learning techniques. Learning methods are:

a) mechanical verbatim multiple repetition - mechanical memory works , It takes a lot of effort, time, and the results are low. Mechanical memory is a memory based on the repetition of material without comprehending it;

b) logical retelling, which includes: logical understanding of the material, systematization, highlighting the main logical components of information, retelling in your own words - logical memory (semantic) works - a type of memory based on the establishment of semantic connections in the memorized material. Logical memory efficiency is 20 times better than mechanical memory;

c) figurative memorization techniques (translating information into images, graphs, diagrams, pictures) - figurative memory works. Figurative memory can be of different types: visual, auditory, motor-motor, gustatory, tactile, olfactory, emotional;

d) mnemonic memorization techniques (special techniques to facilitate memorization).

They also provide short-term memory , long-term memory, working memory, intermediate memory. Any information first enters short-term memory, which ensures that the information presented once is memorized for a short time (b-7 minutes), after which the information can be completely forgotten or transferred to long-term memory, but subject to 1-2 repetitions of information. Short-term memory (KP is limited in volume, with a single presentation, an average of 7 ± 2 is placed in the KP. This is the magic formula of human memory, that is, on average, from one time a person can remember from 5 to 9 words, numbers, numbers, figures, pictures, pieces of information.The main thing is to ensure that these "pieces" are more information-rich by grouping, combining numbers, words into a single holistic "piece-image".

long term memory provides long-term storage of information: there are two types: 1) DP with conscious access (i.e., e. a person can voluntarily extract, recall the necessary information); 2) DP is closed (under natural conditions, a person does not have access to it, but only with hypnosis, with irritation of parts of the brain, he can access it and update images, experiences, pictures of a person’s entire life in all details).

RAM- a type of memory that manifests itself in the performance of a certain activity, serving this activity due to the preservation of information coming from both the CP and the DP, necessary to perform the current activity.

Intermediate memory- ensures the preservation of information for several hours, accumulates information during the day, and the time of night sleep is given by the body to clear the intermediate memory and categorize the information accumulated over the past day, translating it into long-term memory. At the end of sleep, the intermediate memory is again ready to receive new information. In a person who sleeps less than three hours a day, the 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, in actions.

Long-term memory with conscious access is characterized by the pattern of forgetting: everything unnecessary, secondary, as well as a certain percentage of necessary information is forgotten.

Forgetting largely depends on the nature of the activity immediately preceding memorization and occurring after it. The negative effect of the activity preceding memorization is called proactive inhibition. The negative effect of the activity following memorization is called retroactive inhibition, it is especially pronounced in those cases when, after memorization, an activity similar to it is performed or if this activity requires significant effort.

Play Forms:

Recognition is a manifestation of memory that occurs when an object is re-perceived;

Recollection, which is carried out in the absence of perception of the object;

Recall, which is the most active form of reproduction, largely dependent on the clarity of the tasks set, on the degree of logical ordering of the information memorized and stored in the DP;

Reminiscence - delayed reproduction of previously perceived, seemingly forgotten;

Eidetism is a visual memory that retains a vivid image for a long time with all the details of what is perceived.

Mnemic (mnemotechnical) memorization techniques are special techniques to facilitate memorization.

Thinking as a process. Types and types of thinking

Thinking is the most generalized and mediated form of mental reflection, establishing connections and relationships between cognizable objects.

Thinking radically expands the possibilities of a person in his striving for knowledge of everything around him more widely, up to the invisible, since it operates not only with primary and secondary images, but also with concepts.

In its development, thinking goes through two stages: pre-conceptual and conceptual. Pre-conceptual thinking is the initial stage in the development of thinking in a child, when his thinking has a different organization than that of adults; children's judgments are single, about this particular subject. When explaining something, everything is reduced by them to the particular, the familiar. Most judgments are judgments by similarity, or judgments by analogy, since during this period in

memory plays the main role in thinking. The earliest form of proof is an example. Given this peculiarity of the child's thinking, convincing him or explaining something to him, it is necessary to support his speech with illustrative examples.

Types of thinking:

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

Visual-figurative thinking is a type of thinking characterized by reliance on representations and images; the functions of figurative thinking are associated with the representation of situations and changes in them that a person wants to receive as a result of his activity that transforms the situation. A very important feature of figurative thinking is the formation of unusual, incredible combinations of objects and their properties. In contrast to visual-effective thinking, with visual-figurative thinking research institutes the situation is transformed only in terms of the image.

Verbal-logical thinking is a type of thinking carried out with the help of logical concepts.

There are theoretical and practical, intuitive and analytical, realistic and autistic, productive and reproductive thinking.

Theoretical and practical thinking are distinguished by the type of tasks being solved and the resulting structural and dynamic features. Theoretical thinking is the knowledge of laws, rules. For example, the discovery of the periodic table of elements by D. Mendeleev. The main task of practical thinking is the preparation of a physical) transformation of reality: setting a goal, creating a plan, project, scheme. One of the important features of practical thinking is that it unfolds under severe time pressure. In practical thinking, there are very limited possibilities for testing hypotheses, all this makes practical thinking sometimes more difficult than theoretical. Theoretical thinking is sometimes compared to empirical thinking. The following criterion is used here: character

generalizations with which thinking deals; in one case, these are scientific concepts, and in the other, everyday, situational generalizations.

A distinction is also made between intuitive and analytical (logical) thinking. Three signs are usually used: temporal (time of the process), structural (division into stages), level of flow (consciousness or unconsciousness). Analytical thinking is deployed in time, has clearly defined stages, and is largely represented in the mind of the thinking person himself. Intuitive thinking is characterized by the speed of flow, the absence of clearly defined stages, and is minimally conscious.

Realistic thinking is mainly aimed at the outside world, regulated by logical laws, and autistic thinking is associated with the realization of a person’s desires (who among us has not passed off what is desired as really existing). Sometimes the term "egocentric thinking" is used, it is characterized primarily by the inability to accept the point of view of another person.

It is important to distinguish between productive and reproductive thinking, based on "the degree of novelty of the product obtained in the process of mental activity in relation to the knowledge of the subject."

It is also necessary to distinguish involuntary thought processes from arbitrary ones: involuntary transformations of dream images and purposeful solution of mental problems.

Mental activity is realized both at the level of consciousness and at the level of the unconscious, characterized by complex transitions and interactions of these levels. As a result of a successful (purposeful) action, a result is obtained that corresponds to the previously set goal, and the result that was not provided for in the conscious goal, it is in relation to it a by-product (by-product of the action). Problem

conscious and unconscious was concretized into the problem of the relationship between direct (conscious) and side (unconscious) products of action

List of sources used

1. Golubeva E. A. Individual features of human memory. M.: |1980|.

2. Kirnos D.I. Individuality and creative thinking. M.: |1992|.

3. Dormashev Yu.B., Romanov V.Ya. Psychology of attention. M.: |1995|.

4. Article “Psychology of cognitive activity”: [website]. URL:

http://medbookaide.ru/books/fold1002/book1224/p3.php

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