Background. Sound symbolism (SS) refers to the direct association between the sound and the meaning of a word. The results of  cross-linguistic research prove that SS is universal for different languages and cultures. Thirty percent of all natural languages consist of SS words. But despite the large number of psychosemantic studies which have been conducted, the cognitive mechanisms of the perception of SS words still remain unclear.

Objective. The aim of this study was to determine how Russian-speaking subjects perceive visually presented English and Russian words, as measured by  the Lexical decision method.

Design. The study sample consisted of 148 subjects of ages ranging from 13 to 78. The study was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, the perception of visually-presented English SS words by Russian learners of English, with three different levels of language proficiency, was studied. During the second stage, the perception of visually-presented Russian SS words by Russian native speakers from three different age groups was studied.

The stimuli material was selected according to the following criteria: 1) Each word was monosyllabic; 2) Each SS word corresponded to a single arbitrary (non-SS) word of the same pronunciation type; and 3) Each word corresponded to a non-word, formed from it by replacing letters according to the phonotactic rules of English and Russian. At each stage of the study, each subject was given 80 stimuli consisting of 20 SS words, 20 non-SS words, and 40 non-words. An analysis of contingency tables (Chi-square test), comparison of averages (Student's t-test), and analyses of variances (ANOVA) were applied to the data.

Results. The visually-presented SS words were identified more slowly and with more errors than the non-SS words, regardless of the language (Russian or English), the subjects’ age, and their English language proficiency. 

Conclusions. The observed delay effect in the cognitive processing of visually-presentedSSwords is due to the cognitive complexity of the task, which leads to the activation of cross-modal interaction system, besides, interfering systems of information processing are assumed to exist.

Background. This study is based on large samples of language-data collected during the formative period of language acquisition (9–62 months) from free dialogues of English and French children. Analysis of the longitudinal development of children’s vocabularies expressed in terms of Parts of Speech showed that their acquisition develops surprisingly differentlyin these two languages. The hypothesis of the study is that first-language acquisition should respect identical principles, independently of the language acquired.

Objective. To analyze the observed properties of language acquisition data based on a general model of concept formation and information processing.

Design. Two models were applied: (a) Model of information processing based on reasoning concerning information, entropy, energy optimization, and evolution; and (b) Model of native semantic roles, based on the psychological approach of grounded cognition. The common factor in the reasoning applied in these models is that the process of concept formation is based on information generated by the biological system itself.

Results. A joint formal representation is obtained using these two models. The derived mathematical formalism showed remarkable agreement with the sample data. It explains the gradual acquisition of the two languages as one and the same process.The formal description suggests that the acquisition of verbs is accomplished with reference to the concept of Self as Actor, acting in the Environment.

Conclusion. The performed analysis is in support of the hypothesis that there exist inborn mechanisms of concept formation. The investigation of the joint model suggests that the concept of Self plays a central role in the language faculty.

Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the degree of conformity of  generation frequency scores for semantic categories between native (L1) and foreign languages (L2). 

Design. Sixty-eight native Russian-speaking students were asked to list words belonging to different semantic categories in the Russian and English languages.  Their generation frequency was calculated for each word in both languages. Hellinger Affinity scores were used to measure the conformity of the generation frequency norms between the Russian and English language. 

Results. For culture-dependent categories, the level of conformity between the category frequencies in the Russian and English languages was greater than the conformity with North American norms. For culture-independent categories there were no significant differences in the level of conformity between the native and foreign languages as compared with North American frequencies. Furthermore, the number of concepts with significantly different levels of frequency between the Russian and English language was greater for culture-dependent categories than for culture independent-categories.

Conclusion. The low level of similarity for some categories can be explained by the subjects’ different levels of experience using native and foreign languages in the context of these categories. A low level of category frequency accordance can be also explained by the fact that when subjects switch to a foreign language, they tend to name the concepts which are representative of the culture of this language. The strong level of similarity for other categories suggests that the vocabulary of these categories is less affected by cross-cultural and cross-linguistic diversity.

Background. The search for reliable means of establishing relations between sensory qualia and their conceptualization in language has given rise to several approaches, both philosophical and psychophysical. This paper gives a short account of today’s approaches to the problem and presents a frame-based approach, which may be superior to other methods. 

Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of the frame-based approach to the conceptualization of sensory qualia in language. The semantic field “Loud” in the Italian language is analyzed, as it offers a unique case: Italian does not have a lexeme whose main meaning would be translated into English as “loud” or into Russian as “громкий” (gromkiĭ). 

Design. In the field “Loud”, nine adjectives were analyzed by means of  dictionary definitions, frequency in the Italian language corpus, and native speakers’ usage. 

Results. The findings reveal a frame structure of the field consisting of 11 frames, which can be grouped into two large entities: sounds proper and objects that emit sounds. The parameters that underpin the frame structure are vocal/non-vocal, intentional/spontaneous, explosive/non-explosive, one source/multiple sources, and natural/artificial. Another important result is a more accurate description of lexemes involved in the current field (the main adjectives are alto, forte,and rumoroso).

Conclusion. The frame-based approach provides an effective means of studying the relationship between sensory qualia and their conceptualization in language.

Background. The empirical studies in visual word recognition done over the past years have been focused on the influence of contextual, lexical, and semantic properties. Researchers also have taken into consideration the role of individual differences in the word recognition process, e.g., vocabulary knowledge.

Objective. This study focuses on the cognitive strategies used by expert and novice language learners in a visual semantic search task. Our hypothesis is that the level of ESL (English as a Second Language) mastery would influence the word recognition and oculomotor patterns applied by the participants.

Design. The participants–native Russian speakers–were divided into three groups according to their level of English language mastery. The experimental task involved a search for horizontally- or vertically-oriented English words in letter matrices (15*15); the frequency and length of the words varied.Performance measures (number and orientation of the found words) were registered, along with the participants’ eye movements.

Results. Word search efficiency depended on the frequency, length, and orientation of the words and the participant’s language mastery; however, these factors did not interact.Thedata show that oculomotor events are denserin experts’ results. Learners with different levels of language mastery use different information-processing patterns, which are reflected in the proportions of fixation and saccade durations. Two complementary trends were found: word search efficiency is effected, first, by a longer gaze scan path, and second, by the focal mode of visual information-processing, manifested in a combination of longer fixations and shorter saccades.

Conclusion. The registration of eye-movement patterns in visual semantic search tasks reveals the characteristics of effective and non-effective cognitive strategies used by ESL students at different levels of language competence.

This article describes research on visual semantics, different forms of metaphor used in rhetoric and philology (tropes: metonymy, hyperbole, litotes, oxymoron, and others), and images, which are metaphorical also. The research was carried out using paintings. The authors state that the function of metaphor is to transform the sense of the image from a psychological point of view.

One of the central topics in the studies of O. K. Tikhomirov and his collaborators was the link between cognitive and emotional processes. It is important not only how emotions are involved in the process of the productive performance of thinking tasks but also how cognitive processes mediate the involvement of the emotions in the regulation of activity. The efficacy of this regulation is represented through goal achievement and also through the correction of one’s actions in the case of wrongdoing. Reformation of one’s errors is the best way to improve one’s abilities and skills. In moral philosophy the central instance of this reformation is conscience, which ensures positive or negative self-appraisal of one’s own and others’ actions. Unfortunately, in psychology this concept remains unclear. The goal of this article is to clarify it in the context of the contemporary psychology of emotion. Studies of emotions have shown the significance of appraisal in determining particular feelings. The special role of moral emotions, mainly guilt and shame, in the self-correction of one’s actions is emphasized. According to this model, guilt and shame in particular can represent twinges of conscience in the mind because the cognitive dissonance between our (or others’) actions and values shapes the basis of all these phenomena.

This articles concerns the relatively and new and specifically developed in Russia methodology of research of social consciousness. The purpose and in the same time the method of the research using this methodology is reconstruction the system of categories (superordinate personal constructs in the terminology of G. Kelly) through which people perceive world and events around him (her). Especially it is very powerful method when dealing with political and socio-cultural issues, because allows to explicate implicit stereotypes which typically are very deep and difficult for diagnostic. Several examples from different topics of political psychology will be presented.

This article looks at the content strategies of the Russian media and discusses whether they conform to humanitarian values. The content strategies that prevailed in different eras and the social and psychological effects that they engendered are compared. Special attention is paid to conflicts of values and other negative consequences of the communicative incompetence of the media in Russia; this lack of competence poses a threat to the information security of society.

This chapter explains the strategy for the sociocultural reform of education as a socialization institution that plays a key role in the focused development of value systems, standards, paradigms, and behavioral patterns in the population of Russia. The author reveals the role education plays in modeling such phenomena of social development as the social consolidation of society, the civil identity of representatives of various social groups and national cultures, the encouragement of social confidence, the successful socialization of oncoming generations, and the social stratification of the population of Russia. This chapter also considers the benefits of the sociocultural reform of education as a growth driver for the competitive strength of the individual, the society, and the state and for the further design of long-term programs for the social and economic development of Russia, including the federal education-development program.

This article presents an analysis of Vygotsky’s work on the psychology of art and his use of the image of Hamlet in the psychological analysis of personality. It also describes the capabilities of the dialectic method for assessing psychological problems. Reference to three dialectical oppositions—of the story and the plot, of the main character’s spinelessness and his insanity, and of subject and personality—allows the development of a theoretical analysis of the psychology of personality in its relationship to culture. Culture is defined as the system of normative situations. Keywords: image of Hamlet, dialectic method, culture, normative situation, personality, subject.

The work presents historiographic and theoretical methodological study of establishment of fundamental theses of L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical concept within the field of clinical psychology.

We prove potency in application of contemporary philosophical concepts, which help distinguish between the types of scientific rationality (classical, nonclassical, and postnonclassical), for scientific reflection over the development of psychology and designation of paradigmatic status of cultural-historic concept suggested by L.S. Vygotsky and Vygotsky-Luria syndrome approach at the contemporary stage of science.

Present study of scientific works of L.S. Vygotsky and his followers demonstrated that fundamentals of cultural-historic conception suggested by L.S. Vygotsky and further developed in methodology of Vygotsky-Luria syndrome approach, these fundamentals presented the origins of not only non-classical, but as well post-nonclassical model of scientific rationality. They are characterized by post-nonclassical understanding of the object and method of psychological study and post-nonclassical mode of thinking of the scientists.

As it was showed, in works of L.S. Vygotsky there formulated general methodological requirements to organization of mental studies, which, on the whole, go in tune with the requirements introduced for study of complex self-developing systems. There were produced arguments to prove that the concept of Vygotsky-Luria syndrome approach describes mental syndromes as dynamic structures, which display the features of self-organization, self-determination and adaptive rationality. Hence, they can be regarded as open self-developing systems.

We assume and verify the hypothesis that the syndrome analysis, due to the features of post-nonclassic modeling of scientific rationality it reveals, may be regarded as theoretically productive methodological approach at the modern stage of science.

The article aims to demonstrate advances in methodological means suggested by Vygotsky’s cultural-historical concept in association with a theoretical model of a Person-centered diagnosis and practical use of the construct for clinical psychology and medicine. This, to a greater extent, arises from the fact that the cultural-historical concept (due to its humanistic nature and epistemological content) is closely related to the person-centered integrative approach. But for all that the concept corresponds to the ideals of postnonclassical model of scientific rationality with a number of ‘key’ features. Above all it manifests its “methodological maturity” to cope with open self-developing systems, which is most essential at the modern stage of scientific knowledge.

The work gives consideration to ‘defining pillars’ of Person-centered approach in modern medicine, to humanistic traditions of the Russian clinical school, and high prospects in diagnostics of such mental constructs as “subjective pattern of disease” and “social situation of personal development in disease” - within the context of person-centered integrative diagnosis.

This article discusses the need for implementation a cross-cultural study of subjective pattern of disease and its correlation with a particular “social situation of personality development under disease conditions”. It aims at development and substantiation of the model of person-centered integrative approach, enhancement of its diagnostic scope and, consequently, improvement of the model of person-centered care in modern psychiatry and medicine.

Background. Ideas about relationships between “I”, egocentric spatial orientation and the sense of bodily “Self ” date back to work by classics of philosophy and psychology. Cognitive neuroscience has provided knowledge about brain areas involved in self-ref­erential processing, such as the rostral prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices, often active as part of the default mode network (DMN).

Objective and Method. Little is known about the contribution of inferior parietal areas to self-referential processing. Therefore, we collected observations of everyday be­havior, social communication and problem solving in patients with brain lesions local­ized either in the left inferior parietal cortex (LIPC group, n = 45) or the right inferior parietal cortex (RIPC group, n = 58).

Results. A key characteristic of the LIPC group was an overestimation of task com­plexity. This led to a prolonged phase of redundant and disruptive contemplations pre­ceding task solution. In the RIPC group, we observed disorders in reflective control and voluntary regulation of behavior. Abilities for experiencing emotions, understanding mental states, and social communication were to a great extent lost. Results are inter­preted within a multilevel framework of cognitive-affective organization (velichkovsky, 2002). In particular, we highlight the role of right-hemisphere mechanisms in self-refer­ential cognition, emotional and corporeal awareness. This is consistent with recent data on a profound asymmetry in connectivity of left and right hippocampi within the DMN (Ushakov et al., 2016)

Conclusion. It seems that the center of egocentric spatial representation plays a spe­cial role in accessing self-related data. Normally, the right hippocampus provides a holis­tic representation of surrounding and, thus, an easy-to-find gateway into much of what we used to call “subjective experience”. This heuristics becomes misleading in the case of right-sided brain lesions.

Play and playfulness are basic features in early childhood education. The elements of play are pleasure, a sense of freedom, and the co-construction of shared meaning through the use of rules or rhythms. Play and learning are closely related in early childhood. But when the focus on the educational benefits of play becomes too strong, the most essential feature of play is lost: children’s pleasure. Young children in group settings often have to adapt to the teachers’ demands related to security, hygiene, and social norms and values. But the playfulness of the teachers helps to overcome differences in power in the caregiver-child relationship and prevents young children from becoming overburdened with strict rules and group discipline. Play and playfulness are a resource of shared pleasure and creativity in learning processes.