Cognitive psychology

Background. Incidental findings are items of visual search that are potentially of significance, but were not the main object of the initial search. They have been previously widely discussed in the field of radiology. However, the underlying perceptual mechanisms of such phenomenon are still unclear.

Objective. The current study aims to examine incidental findings in different paradigms of visual search in order to reveal their primary perceptual aspects.

Design. Two behavioral visual search experiments were conducted. The mixed hybrid search task model was used in the first experiment, while the subsequent search miss effect was employed in the second experiment. The task was to find targets among distractors, according to given instructions. Stimuli material consisted of images of real-life objects that were randomly distributed across the screen for each trial.

Results. Accuracy and reaction time of the participants were analyzed in both experiments. Similar effects were observed for both parameters. Specific targets in the first experiment and typical targets in the second experiment were found significantly faster and more accurately in comparison to categorical and atypical targets. Moreover, this tendency did not depend on the order of target identification. Hence, the prevalence of the targets was revealed to be the primary factor in the case of incidental findings.

Conclusion. The study revealed the emergence of incidental findings in both experiments. Typical or specific targets were detected significantly more accurately, compared to atypical or categorical targets. Subsequent search misses were not detected, suggesting that target prevalence could be a crucial factor that is specific for incidental findings. 

Background. A person’s ability to solve several tasks simultaneously, or within a limited amount of time, -- i.e., multitasking -- is becoming more and more highly valued in society, despite experimental data in cognitive science about the low effectiveness of such activity. But, in the modern world, the term multitasking has become increasingly used in another sense – that is, a personal choice to perform several tasks simultaneously even if a person could do them consecutively.

Objective. The aim of this study was to reveal the relationship between a personal preference for multitasking, its subjective effectiveness in children and adolescents, and their tendency for and efficacy of multitasking under experimental conditions.

Design. One hundred and fifty-seven (157) schoolchildren of different ages participated in the study, which called for responding to four windows on a screen, including texts (SMS) and video images, and reporting on their subjective multitasking and its efficacy.

Results. The majority of children and adolescents said (the older they were, the more likely) that sometimes, or often, they combine several tasks, and argued that their performance was effective.

Conclusion. The subjective perspective on multitasking and its effectiveness was more likely to be related to multitasking by carrying out several tasks simultaneously, than switching between tasks, and was not related to actual effectiveness when undertaking a variety of activities within a limited time period. In the case of distractions (for instance, incoming messages while undertaking tasks), they might be related to a decrease in effectiveness.

Background. Whereas sleep and emotion are important factors affecting false memory, there is a lack of empirical research on the interaction effect of sleep and emotion on false memory. Moreover, it should be investigated further that how the effects of emotion on false memory varies from presenting emotional content to eliciting emotional state.

Objective. To examine how sleep and varying emotional context influence false memories. We predicted that sleep and emotion would interactively affect false memory when participants are presented with negative words in a learning session (Experiment 1) or when their emotional state is induced before a learning session (Experiment 2).

Design. We used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task. Emotional words were used to elicit emotion during learning in Experiment 1 and video clips were used to induce a particular mood state before learning in Experiment 2. Participants were divided into a “sleep group” and a “wake group” and completed an initial learning session either in the evening or in the morning respectively. After a learning session, participants in the sleep group slept at night as usual and completed a recognition test in the morning, while participants in the wake group stayed awake during the daytime and completed their recognition test in the evening. All participants completed a recognition test after the same period of time.

Results. In Experiment 1, the wake group falsely recognized more negative critical lure words than neutral ones, but no such difference existed in the sleep group, suggesting that sleep modulated the emotional effect on false memory. In Experiment 2, participants in either a positive or negative mood state showed more false recognition than those in a neutral state. There was no such difference in the wake group. We conclude that sleep and emotion interactively affect false memory.

Contemporary cognitive science is the latest version of the century-long quest for a better understanding of the human mind and brain. Various disciplines have brought together empirical methods and theoretical models from their fields of study to further this effort. Many of the authors of this special issue are not psychologists by training, and they do their professional work in fields as varied as mathematical physics, neuroimaging, molecular biology, and the pragmatics of communication. Nevertheless, their contributions to the journal’s topic, and, ito the future of psychology as a science, are preeminent.

Background. Working memory (WM) seems to be central to most forms of high-level cognition. This fact is fueling the growing interest in studying its structure and functional organization. The influential “concentric model” (Oberauer, 2002) suggests that WM contains a processing component and two storage components with different capacity limitations and sensitivity to interference. There is, to date, only limited support for the concentric model in the research literature, and it is limited to a number of specially designed tasks.

Objective. In the present paper, we attempted to validate the concentric model by testing its major predictions using complex span and updating tasks in a number of experimental paradigms.

Method. The model predictions were tested with the help of review of data obtained primarily in our own experiments in several research domains, including Sternberg’s additive factors method; factor structure of WM; serial position effects in WM; and WM performance in a sample with episodic long-term memory deficits.

Results. Predictions generated by the concentric model were shown to hold in all these domains. In addition, several new properties of WM were identified. In particular, we recently found that WM indeed contains a processing component which functions independent of storage components. In turn, the latter were found to form a storage hierarchy which balances fast access to selected items, with the storing of large amounts of potentially relevant information. Processing and storage in WM were found to be dependent on shared cognitive resources which are dynamically allocated between WM components according to actual task requirements. e implications of these findings for the theory of WM are discussed.

Conclusion. The concentric model was shown to be valid with respect to standard WM tasks. The concentric model others promising research perspectives for the study of higher- order cognition, including underlying neurobiological mechanisms. 

Background. This article is devoted to empirical research on discourse abilities within the structure of cognitive abilities. Discourse abilities, as well as linguistic abilities, are part of language abilities, but they are directly linked with discourse practices and a certain communicative situation. Discourse abilities allow a person to effectively initiate, keep, expand, and complete the process of communication, using language appropriate to any given situation. These abilities contribute to making communication more effective and achieving mutual understanding between partners, while at the same time they speed up the process of forming an interaction strategy. the empirical verification of the construct “discourse abilities,” and the design of original diagnostic tests on them, led us to differentiate linguistic and discourse abilities.

Objective. However, it is not yet clear what place discourse abilities occupy in the structure of cognitive abilities. This is the primary goal of our research.

Method. The design of the study involved group testing (in groups of 15-35 people) using the following methods: a discourse abilities test; a short selection test; a social intelligence test, and short variations of Torrance’s and Mednick’s tests. In total, 208 people (133 women and 75 men, ages 17 to 21 years) participated in the study, all of them either first year humanities students or high school students from Moscow.

Results and Discussion. The research results revealed that discourse abilities relevantly correlate with the majority of indicators of general and social intelligence and creativity (except non-verbal intelligence). Discourse abilities as part of the structure of cognitive capabilities form a discrete factor, and include relevant components such as verbal and general intelligence and indicators of social intelligence, such as the ability to group expressions. Structures indicative of cognitive abilities varied within the study group, which included people with different levels of discourse abilities. A data structure which conformed to an a priori structure of cognitive abilities was observed only in the group with the medium level of discourse abilities. The group with a low level of discourse abilities mostly showed the aggregation of various indicators of intelligence and creativity, while the group with a high level of discourse abilities showed further differentiation of intelligence types, and the evolution of discourse abilities into a separate factor. 

Background. Insight is a specific part of the thinking process during creative problem solving. The experience of a sudden unexpected solution of the problem makes it distinct from other problem solving. Though the insight problem solving process is hidden from the observer and the solver himself, it is possible to study working memory changes during the problem-solving process in order to observe the tracks of insight.

Objective. A critical experiment was carried out to determine whether it is legitimate to measure insight-problem-solving dynamics within a dual-task paradigm and working memory model. Also a verification was conducted of the hypothesis of whether insight problem solving competes for cognitive resources with unconscious processes.

Design. We designed a special procedure based on Kahneman’s (1973) modified dual-task paradigm, allowing simultaneous performance of the problem-solving process and probe tasks of different types. The reaction time was measured for the probe task. ere were two problems conditions (insight and regular), and two probe tasks conditions (implicit and explicit). Participants: 32 participants, aged from 18 to 32 years (M = 19.81; σ = 2.51).

Results. Significant differences in implicit probe reaction time were found between the dual-task condition (implicit categorization and insight problem solving) and solo implicit probe condition (t(15) = –3.21, p = .006, d = –.76). A joint effect of problem type and probe type was found (F(1, 60)= 4.85, p = .035, ηp2 = .07).

Conclusion. The results support the idea that information processing of conscious and of unconscious processes are separate. Unconscious processing capacity is limited. Implicit skill seems to be operated by the same mechanisms as insight problem solving, therefore competing for a common resource. It was also shown that such hidden creative unconscious processes as insight can be tracked via working memory load. 

Background. Human-machine interaction technology has greatly evolved during the last decades, but manual and speech modalities remain single output channels with their typical constraints imposed by the motor system’s information transfer limits. Will brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and gaze-based control be able to convey human commands or even intentions to machines in the near future? We provide an overview of basic approaches in this new area of applied cognitive research.

Objective. We test the hypothesis that the use of communication paradigms and a combination of eye tracking with unobtrusive forms of registering brain activity can improve human-machine interaction.

Methods and Results. Three groups of ongoing experiments at the Kurchatov Institute are reported. First, we discuss the communicative nature of human-robot interaction, and approaches to building a more e cient technology. Specifically, “communicative” patterns of interaction can be based on joint attention paradigms from developmental psychology, including a mutual “eye-to-eye” exchange of looks between human and robot. Further, we provide an example of “eye mouse” superiority over the computer mouse, here in emulating the task of selecting a moving robot from a swarm. Finally, we demonstrate a passive, noninvasive BCI that uses EEG correlates of expectation. This may become an important lter to separate intentional gaze dwells from non-intentional ones.

Conclusion. The current noninvasive BCIs are not well suited for human-robot interaction, and their performance, when they are employed by healthy users, is critically dependent on the impact of the gaze on selection of spatial locations. The new approaches discussed show a high potential for creating alternative output pathways for the human brain. When support from passive BCIs becomes mature, the hybrid technology of the eye-brain-computer (EBCI) interface will have a chance to enable natural, fluent, and the effortless interaction with machines in various fields of application.

Background. The relationships between conceptual model structures and an operator’s professional efficiency are of direct practical importance, particularly in the case of large-scale industrial complexes combining several human-machine systems. A typical example is the power unit of a nuclear power plant (NPP).

Objective and methods. The purpose of this study was to explore the conceptual models of senior reactor operators (SROs) of NPPs. The study involved 64 men working as SRO at five NPPs in Russia. The methods included: structured interviews, expert estimations, multidimensional scaling (ALSCAL), the K-means clustering algorithm, and frequency analysis. The procedure was as follows: 32 key characteristics of the power unit were defined, including shift operators’ jobs and duties, technical subsystems, types of equipment, and the crucial power unit parameters. The participants were offered a 32×32 matrix for pair-wise estimation of the strength of the links between these key characteristics on a seven-point scale (496 links in total).

Results. A general scheme of key characteristics in the conceptual models was defined. is scheme was displayed in the operators regardless of their employment history. Within the scheme, however, two types of conceptual models were identified, which could be distinguished by the relative number of strong links between the key characteristics. With respect to intersystem links including key characteristics of the reactor and turbine NPP departments, this number was significantly higher in models of Type 1 than in those of Type 2. A positive correlation between the number of these links and the professional efficiency indicators was also established. Operators with Type 1 models were able to more predictably represent the power unit operation.

Conclusion. The main role in creating predictable and efficient conceptual models was played by strong intersystem links in mental representations of workflow.

Background. Prolonged exposure to moving images in virtual reality systems can cause virtual reality induced motion sickness (VIMS). The ability to resist motion sickness may be associated with the level of vestibular function development. objective. The aim of the present research is to study the oculomotor characteristics of individuals whose observation of moving virtual environments causes the VIMS effect. We hypothesized that people who have a robust vestibular function as a result of their professional activity, are less susceptible to VIMS than people who have no such professional abilities. The differences in people’s abilities to resist the effects of the virtual environment may be revealed in the oculomotor characteristics registered during their interaction with a virtual environment.

Design. Figure skaters, football players, wushu fighters, and non-trained people were tested. e CAVE virtual reality system was used to initiate the VIMS effect. three virtual scenes were constructed consisting of many bright balls moving as a whole around the observer. e scenes differed in the width of the visual field; all balls subtended either 45°, 90° or 180°.

Results. The results showed more active eye movements for athletes compared to non-trained people, i.e. an increase in blink, fixation, and saccade counts. A decrease in saccadic amplitudes was revealed for figure skaters. These characteristics were considered specific indicators of the athletes’ ability to resist motion sickness.

Conclusions. It was found that the strength of the VIMS effect increased with the increasing width of the visual field. The effectiveness of virtual reality and eye-tracking technologies to test the VIMS effect was demonstrated.

Background. The sense of presence is an important aspect of interaction with virtual reality applications. Earlier we suggested that presence can depend on cognitive control. The latter is a set of meta-cognitive processes which are responsible for configuring the cognitive system for the accomplishment of specific tasks with respect to a given context. In particular, cognitive control helps in preventing interference from the task-irrelevant variables.

Objective. is study aimed at investigation of the possible relationship between interference control and aspects of presence.

Design. Thirty-nine subjects (32 female and 7 male, aged 18 to 27 years) participated in the study. The subjects were assessed via a battery of interference control tasks (Flanker Task, Go/No Go task, antisaccade task) and performed a virtual scenario (navigating within an array of randomly placed virtual digits in correct numerical order) in high-immersion (CAVE) and low-immersion (standard computer display) virtual environments. Afterwards, the subjects completed a Russian version of the ITC-Sense of Presence inventory.

Results. We found that interference control is generally related to the sense of presence, especially in the CAVE (high-immersion) environment. Sensory interference control was most strongly associated with various aspects of presence (overall presence score, spatial presence, and emotional involvement). Motor interference control was associated with spatial presence and emotional involvement, but this relationship was weaker than was the case with sensory interference control. Low-immersion virtual environments attenuate some of these links between interference control and presence so that only sensory interference control remains a notable predictor of presence.

Conclusion. Interference control is positively associated with presence in virtual environments with varying immersion levels. is may reflect a more general cause-and-effect relationship between cognitive control and the feeling of presence in virtual reality.

Background. In line with the approach of Larkin et al. (2006), we consider technological dependence in the context of the interaction between personality, environment, and culture.

Objective. The aim of this study is to discover technology-related changes in psycho- logical needs and boundaries that could mediate the relationship between psychopathological symptoms and indicators of excessive use of info-communication technologies (ICT). The application of the Body Function Regulation Model to the use of ICT suggests that technology-related changes in the system of an individual’s needs and psychological boundaries mediate the relationship between a sense of poor psychological well-being and the risk of technology dependence.

Design. The study of a normative sample (N = 275) using two technologies–mobile phones and the Internet–was performed.

Results and Discussion. We demonstrated that the relationship between the general level of psychopathological symptoms and excessive use of technology (subjective dependence and inability to refrain from use of mobile phones and the Internet) is indeed mediated by the perception of their indispensability for extension of psychological boundaries, and (for the Internet) its use in image-making.

Background. Previous studies have shown that brain response to a written word depends on the task: whether the word is a target in a version of lexical decision task or should be read silently. Although this effect has been interpreted as an evidence for an interaction between word recognition processes and task demands, it also may be caused by greater attention allocation to the target word.

Objective. We aimed to examine the task effect on brain response evoked by non- target written words.

Design. Using MEG and magnetic source imaging, we compared spatial-temporal pattern of brain response elicited by a noun cue when it was read silently either without additional task (SR) or with a requirement to produce an associated verb (VG).

Results.The task demands penetrated into early (200-300 ms) and late (500-800 ms) stages of a word processing by enhancing brain response under VG versus SR condition. The cortical sources of the early response were localized to bilateral inferior occipitotemporal and anterior temporal cortex suggesting that more demanding VG task required elaborated lexical-semantic analysis. The late effect was observed in the associative auditory areas in middle and superior temporal gyri and in motor representation of articulators. Our results suggest that a remote goal plays a pivotal role in enhanced recruitment of cortical structures underlying orthographic, semantic and sensorimotor dimensions of written word perception from the early processing stages. Surprisingly, we found that to fulfil a more challenging goal the brain progressively engaged resources of the right hemisphere throughout all stages of silent reading.

Conclusion. Our study demonstrates that a deeper processing of linguistic input amplifies activation of brain areas involved in integration of speech perception and production. This is consistent with theories that emphasize the role of sensorimotor integration in speech understanding. 

Background. Concepts of movement and action are not completely synonymous, but what distinguishes one from the other? Movement may be defined as stimulus- driven motor acts, while action implies realization of a specific motor goal, essential for cognitively driven behavior. Although recent clinical and neuroimaging studies have revealed some areas of the brain that mediate cognitive aspects of human motor behavior, the identification of the basic neural circuit underlying the interaction between cognitive and motor functions remains a challenge for neurophysiology and psychology.

Objective. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate elementary cognitive aspects of human motor behavior.

Design. Twenty healthy right-handed volunteers were asked to perform stimulus-driven and goal-directed movements by clenching the right hand into a fist (7 times). The cognitive component lay in anticipation of simple stimuli signals. In order to disentangle the purely motor component of stimulus-driven movements, we used the event-related (ER) paradigm. FMRI was performed on a 3 Tesla Siemens Magnetom Verio MR-scanner with 32-channel head coil.

Results. We have shown differences in the localization of brain activity depending on the involvement of cognitive functions. These differences testify to the role of the cerebellum and the right hemisphere in motor cognition. In particular, our results suggest that right associative cortical areas, together with the right posterolateral cerebellum (Crus I and lobule VI) and basal ganglia, de ne cognitive control of motor activity, promoting a shift from a stimulus-driven to a goal-directed mode.

Conclusion. These results, along with recent data from research on cerebro-cerebellar circuitry, redefine the scope of tasks for exploring the contribution of the cerebellum to diverse aspects of human motor behavior and cognition.

Background. Rostral prefrontal cortex, or frontopolar cortex (FPC), also known as Brodmann area 10 (BA10), is the most anterior part of the human brain. It is one of the largest cytoarchitectonic areas of the human brain that has significantly increased its volume during evolution. Anatomically the le (BA10L) and right (BA10R) parts of FPC show slight asymmetries and they may have distinctive cognitive functions. Objective. In the present study, we investigated differential expression of the transcriptome in the le and right parts of BA10.

Design. Postmortem samples of human brain tissue from fourteen donors (male/ female without history of psychiatric and neurological diseases, mean age 39.79±3.23 years old, mean postmortem interval 12.10±1.76 h) were obtained using the resources of three institutions: the Partner Institute of Computational Biology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and NIH Neuro-BioBank.

Results. By using a standard RNA-sequencing followed by bioinformatic analysis, we identified 61 genes with differential expression in the le and right FPC. In general, gene expression was increased in BA10R relative to BA10L: 40 vs. 21 genes, respectively. According to gene ontology analysis, the majority of up-regulated genes in BA10R be- longed to the protein-coding category, whereas protein-coding and non-coding genes were equally up-expressed in BA10L. Most of the up-regulated genes in BA10R were involved in brain plasticity and activity-dependent mechanisms also known for their role in the hippocampus. 24 out of 30 mental disorder-related genes in the dataset were disrupted in schizophrenia. No such a wide association with other mental disorders was found.

Conclusion. Discovered differences point at possible causes of hemispheric asymmetries in the human frontal lobes and at the molecular base of higher-order cognitive processes in health and disease.

Children’s questions are an indicator of active cognitive perception of reality. Questions but not answers are relevant in revealing a child’s mental life, consciousness and thinking. The lack of question-asking skills can hinder learning, searching and exploration in children. To determine in 7- and 8-year-old school children the common and variable peculiarities of designing a search process for necessary information concerning an unknown object by volitionally formulated questions, as well as the dynamics of the questioning process throughout a school year. The study was based on an experimental methodology, codenamed Guess what there is in the box, and was conducted in four schools in Cheboksary. The sample comprised 158 primary school first-graders who took part in a confirmatory experiment twice, once in September and once in May. The research showed that 96.3% of the questions asked were search questions. Only 30% of the first-graders initiated their searching activities of their own will without having to resort to the given search algorithm, while 70% did not begin asking questions without outside stimulation. The analysis of the dynamics of children’s question-asking behavior exhibited a tendency to decrease in a number of questions asked over the course of the school year. Primary school children need psychological and pedagogical scaffolding aimed at developing a question-asking behavior as a form of cognitive activity to achieve a possible age potential in development.

The research in the field of metacognition for developing reading is not new; metacognition has been used for many years to identify ways to develop students’ reading comprehension. Most previous research has addressed either primary or secondary level students. However, notably few studies have been conducted at the undergraduate level. This study has attempted to initiate strategies to assist first-year engineering students in developing their reading abilities within a Pakistani context. The primary objective of this research was to identify what strategies first-year engineering students use in developing their reading at Quaid-e-Awam University of engineering science and technology in Pakistan. This study used qualitative instruments that included semi-structured interviews with teachers and classroom observations during read-aloud sessions. The data were organized through NVivo version 8 for obtaining nodes, codes, and main themes for interpreting the results. The results of this study demonstrated that teachers should use metacognitive strategies for developing students’ reading abilities. Findings also revealed that reading strategies, such as text scanning, guesses from contextual clues, drawing on prior knowledge, and using a dictionary, are the most important strategies to use for developing the reading skills and comprehension of engineering students. This study has suggested metacognitive strategies be used for promoting students’ reading abilities and that teachers should design and develop more courses using these strategies to enhance the reading and listening skills of engineering students.

Patterns of the relationship between the development of learning ability as one of the general abilities and metacognitive traits of personality are considered in the article. The necessity of appeal to this issue arises from the peculiarities of the current state of research in the theory of abilities and modern metacognitivism. Despite the ever-increasing number of studies in the field of general abilities and learning ability in particular and in the field of metacognitive processes of the personality, the possible interconnection of this class of processes and the level of learning ability and, therefore, the interpretation of this interconnection are rarely considered. To date these crucial areas are not in sufficient contact with each other. The purpose of this study is to identify and interpret the possible relationship of the level of learning ability with metacognitive processes and qualities of the individual and their organization. The research procedure was based on a comparison of the individual measures of the development of learning ability as a general ability with the diagnostics of the main parameters of the metacognitive sphere of personality, including features of its organization and implementation in relation to the methodology of structural-psychological analysis. This procedure is based on the determination of matrices of intercorrelation and the subsequent interpretation of correlograms of the metacognitive parameters of a person. The main result is that there exists a mutual dependence of characteristics of the level of learning ability and basic parameters of the metacognitive sphere of personality (metacognitive processes and traits). This dependence lies in the fact that an increase in the level of development of learning ability increases the intensity of separate metacognitive personal qualities and the general level of their structural organization. An interpretation of the data is presented. According to it, learning ability, as a significant factor in the level of development of metacognitive processes and personality traits, acquires an additional and quite powerful resource to enhance at the same time its own level because of the organization of these processes and traits.

This article describes the functions of metacognition and the role of these functions in professional pedagogical thinking (PPT): the discovery of the emergence of a problemacy, the organization of cognition processes, and the management of the comprehension and resolution of the problem situation. Thinking is related to the metacognitive activity of a subject. Components and strategies of metacognition are included in the PPT process and define (by means of conscious or unconscious regulation) the efficiency of discovering and solving problems in an interpersonal interaction situation that must be comprehended and transformed. One of the conditions providing for realization of the supra-situational thinking of professionals is a high level of metacognitive activity, although the level of the pronouncedness of metacognitive activity does not depend on the subject’s possessing basic professional education.

We have created and tested new psychodiagnostic techniques aimed at defining the level of forecasting in problem (conflict) situations and at evaluating metacognitive knowledge and activity. The sample group included about 800 people (university lecturers, school teachers, and teachers who train college students). It was proved that the metacognitive focus of forecasting stimulates the formation and development of various forecasting types: proactive, retroactive, and interactive. Forecasting is viewed as a metacognitive component of supra-situational thinking and a component of the cognitive side of communication. Situational and supra- situational types of pedagogical thinking are shown to have different properties and different orientations toward forecasting activity; these properties and orientations determine the differentiation and hierarchization of these types of thinking. It was discovered that the metacognitive properties of supra-situational thinking are achieved through a high degree of integration of all basic forecasting qualities (analyticity, depth, awareness, flexibility, prospectiveness, and validity).

The efficiency of our devised and tested program aimed at perfecting PPT is evident in the dynamics of its objective and subjective properties (an increased level of suprasituativity of thinking among the program participants and the participants’ subjective evaluations of transformation in coping with difficulties in conflict situations). The formation of supra-situational thinking—in particular, of components such as forecasting (in both a narrow and a broad context)—is closely connected with envisaging prospects, including those for one’s own professional and personality development.

Thought is considered a psychological concept associated with an individual’s mental ex- istence. It is apparent that a great deal of research has been focused on thought as an area of study. however, there is no psychological theory of thought which provides an expla- nation for its nature and structural organization. So far, researchers have mainly looked at the ways this concept is expressed, rather than investigating what it actually is. In this study, however, based on studies of the functions of the psyche, mental processes, and the neurophysiological bases of mental activity, thought is identified as a need-emotion- intentional substance existing in the human being’s inner world. In keeping with this understanding of thought, the hypothesis that thought generation is caused by desire and experience (feeling and emotion) is put forward. An individual’s thought is linked to his behavior or motivation for activity, and is followed by an emotional experience. The process of thought generation is regarded through the mechanism of behavioral motiva- tion. The primary purpose of this mechanism is to define the qualities of the external objects that serve for need satisfaction and functionality in individuals. The ability to generate thoughts is a feature of thinking related to an individual’s mental ability or frame of mind. From this standpoint, a person’s mentality is considered to be the capacity of the individual to generate thoughts and work through thoughts. It is shown that the abil- ity to generate thoughts and establish relationships within a stream of consciousness is characteristic of human intelligence. Some basic propositions toward a development of a psychological theory of thought are introduced. 

The cognitive processing of metaphor creation has been insufficiently investigated. Creating metaphors requires the ability to work in a fantastic, impossible context, using symbolic and associative means to express oneís thoughts. It has been shown recently that intelligence plays an important role in the creation of metaphors, but it is not the main factor in determining their success. The present research explores the roles of conceptual abilities, categorical abilities, and flexibility (as the factor creativity) in metaphor creation. Participants (n = 38 young adults) were asked to come up with names for three photos, without any special instruction to create metaphors. To classify conceptual abilities we used ìConceptual Synthesisî (M. A. Kholodnaya, 2012); to measure categorical ability we used the subtest ìSimilaritiesî (D. Wechsler, 1955); to identify the role of creativity in the metaphor process we used the test of ìUnusual Usesî (J. P. Guilford, 1960). The creation of complex metaphorical names was associated with a tendency to create highly organized mental structures and to retain them within the general semantic context (r = 0.344, p < 0.05). The tendency to create single-level situational connections was associated with a tendency to give specific names to photos (r = 0.475, p < 0.01). Photographic images proved out to be fruitful stimuli to investigate the processing of visual information. We developed a preliminary classification of names: 1) concrete; 2) situational; 3) abstract; 4) metaphorical (M1 and M2). We identified two types of metaphorical names — perceptual and complex metaphors — that relate to conceptual abilities in different ways. It is inaccurate to speak about a general concept of ìmetaphorical abilitiesî; we should differentiate the psychological mechanisms that lie at their base.

This study examines the role of cognitive characteristics in the success in learning Russian, assessed through teachers’ grades and test scores on standardized state exams.

This paper examines the relationship between cognitive characteristics, such as nonverbal intelligence, working memory and speed of information processing, and the results of the Unified State Exam for 11^th grade students, the Basic State Exam for 9^th grade students and the traditional assessment of Russian language learning.

This study involved students in the 9^th and 11^th grades from four educational institutions in the Moscow and St. Petersburg regions; 427 students were studying in the 9th grade (50.3% were boys) and 398 students were studying in the 11^th grade (44.8% were boys).

This study concluded that expert assessment of Russian language learning is more associated with successful test scores on the Unified State Exam (r = 0.71, p < 0.01) than with the results of the Basic State Exam (r = 0.46, р < 0.01).

This study showed that at the lower and upper levels of secondary education, nonverbal intelligence is a significant predictor of success in learning the Russian language according to expert estimates. In addition, we found differences in the relationship between cognitive performance and success in learning the Russian language as assessed by tests. Nonverbal intelligence contributes significantly to individual differences in scores for the Unified State Exam in Russian, while the contribution of cognitive characteristics on the Basic State Exam is not statistically significant.

Using the results of two empirical studies (with different samples and academic subjects), our research was aimed at discovering the significant role of conscious self-regulation, intelligence, and cognitive features in predicting optimal academic achievement. The sample consisted of 406 students (aged 14-16) in the 8th to 11th grades of the Russian formal education system. Conscious self-regulation together with intelligence and cognitive abilities was determined to be a significant predictor of academic success. The Study 1 results revealed that the general level of self-regulation of learning activity and certain regulatory features were significant predictors of different types of mathematical achievements: academic grades, scores on exams, mathematical fluency, as well as solving logical mathematical problems and equations. The present study is the first to show the mediating role of self-regulation in relation to intelligence, cognitive features, and academic success. Study 2 found evidence that conscious self-regulation and intelligence can predict academic achievement in the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences... At the same time, this determination has its peculiarities in particular variables of intelligence and certain self-regulation processes depending on the substantive characteristics of the academic subjects. Regression models of academic success in the humanities identified verbal intelligence associated with vocabulary as highly significant and a definitive requirement for success in these subjects. Study 1 and Study 2 showed that the only significant predictors of success in algebra and geometry were quantitative- relations intelligence and spatial intelligence. The implications of these findings for investigating predictors of academic achievement are discussed.

The objective of this research was to assess the motivational potential of psychology students using an egoskopiya method. Heart rate and EEG data were recorded while the participants performed the Mehrabian achievement motivation test. Thirty students of the Faculty of Psychology of Southern Federal University who were aged between 20 and 30 years participated. The psychodiagnostic study involved 136 students from the Faculty of Psychology of Southern Federal University who were aged between 18 and 49 years. To determine the lateral organization profiles of sensory and motor functions, a computer-based testing program termed “Profile” was used. The Compact Russian Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ-77) was used to evaluate the features of temperament. 

The results revealed that people with a strong motivation to succeed exhibited a predominance of right features in their lateral organization profiles. Their cardiovascular systems were in more activated states than those of the people who were extremely motivated to avoid failure. The observed temperament features of psychology students with different levels of achievement motivation indicated that the level of achievement motivation is related to the properties of temperament such that students with lower levels of achievement motivation (i.e., motivation to avoid failure) exhibited the temperament traits of Neuroticism and Impulsivity in addition to low values on the scales for the Sensitivity to Sensations, Intellectual Ergonicity, and Sensitivity to Probabilities. High levels of achievement motivation (i.e., motivation to strive toward success) corresponded to the psychology students’ propensities for Sensitivity to Sensations, high levels of Intellectual Ergonicity, high levels of Sensitivity to Probabilities and low values on the scales of Impulsivity and Neuroticism.

This article describes the theoretical difference between the flexibility and the multidimensionality of thinking. Multidimensionality is discussed as a characteristic of thinking that is necessary for exploration of the variability of structural transformations of problematic situations.

The objective of the study was to examine a number of theories concerning the correlative connection between the multidimensionality of thinking and other characteristics of creative, productive thinking: the flexibility of thinking; the formation of an operation of dialectical thinking such as “mediation”; the ability of a person to use a scheme as an abstraction for analysis of various specific content.

A total of 85 people participated in the study: they were 15 to 17 years old, students at a senior school in Kaliningradskaya oblast, winners of different stages of the all-Russian academic competition in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. All respondents had a high level of academic success and of general intelligence.

The following techniques were used in this study: (1) my technique for diagnostics of the multidimensionality of thinking; (2) my technique of “schemes and paintings,” designed for diagnostics of the ability to relate abstract schemes and various specific content; (3) the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (verbal battery); (4) a diagnostic technique for dialectical thinking: “What can be simultaneous?”

All the hypotheses were confirmed.

Confirmation was received of the existence of a correlation connection; this finding counts in favor of the assumption that the parameters of thinking my colleagues and I were working with can in aggregate be considered an integral characteristic of human thinking. It allows us to distinguish significant features of a situation from secondary ones—that is, to see a substantial contradiction and to propose several options for its transformation.

We investigated whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation in a group of 21 healthy adult subjects during perception, imagination and remembering of two dynamic visual scenarios. Activation of the posterior parts of the cortex prevailed when watching videos. The cognitive tasks of imagination and remembering were accompanied by a predominant activity in the anterior parts of the cortex. An independent component analysis identified seven large-scale cortical networks with relatively invariant spatial distributions across all experimental conditions. The time course of their activation over experimental sessions was task-dependent. These detected networks can be interpreted as a recombination of resting state networks. Both central and peripheral networks were identified within the primary visual cortex. The central network around the caudal pole of BA17 and centers of other visual areas was activated only by direct visual stimulation, while the peripheral network responded to the presentation of visual information as well as to the cognitive tasks of imagination and remembering. The latter result explains the particular susceptibility of peripheral and twilight vision to cognitive top-down influences that often result in false-alarm detections.

The contribution of Oleg K. Tikhomirov (1933-2001), his disciples and representatives of Tikhomirov’s school in psychology of thinking is analyzed. Tikhomirov was the initiator of the Personal Meanings Theory of thinking, one of the leading schools of cognitive studies in Russia. Tikhomirov is known outside Russia as well: more than once, he presented his work at international congresses and conferences; his writings have been translated into several European languages. The paper includes brief biographical information about Tikhomirov. The main components of the Personal Meanings Theory are presented, such as the regulative function of (intellectual) emotions during problem solving, the actual genesis of goal-setting, the formation of personal meanings during the processes involved in thinking, and the personality-related determinants of decision making. Tikhomirov’s pioneering ideas in the studies of creativity, including jointparticipation in creative activities, are discussed in the paper. In the last section of the paper, Tikhomirov’s studies of the impact of information and communication technology on the psychological transformations undergone by adepts of high technologies and technology’s effect on their intellectual and communicative activities are discussed; these studies accelerated a new field of research in Russia, namely cyberpsychology or Internet psychology.

The current state of cognitive science is discussed in this article. It is argued that cognitive science as it currently exists is not a separate, independent science. It is represented by a scientific interdisciplinary community focused on meeting the key challenges posed by the present time. The objective of the discourse in this interdisciplinary space is to generate new knowledge that it is impossible to generate within the frameworks of separate scientific disciplines. Some features of this new (transdisciplinary) stage are emerging within on-going interdisciplinary research. One of the signs of the new stage is the outlining of a merger of humanitarian and natural-scientific knowledge. It is claimed that the transdisciplinary approach can be considered as “a creative polylogue” of monodisciplines capable of generating knowledge that is not available to any science and the acquisition of which is beyond the abilities of any science.

The current study investigated the relationships among creativity, tolerance for uncertainty (TU), and emotional intelligence (EI) in a selected sample of undergraduate students (n=145). We found differential patterns of intercorrelations among these constructs in students majoring in psychology, music, and stage directing, and we also established group differences in these constructs in the three groups of students. Thus, the use of emotional information in personal decision making in different subsamples is assumed to be achieved through hierarchies of diverse processes. Overall, creativity, EI, and TU acted as predictors of the use of emotional information in decision making.

The effect of chess skill, age, and conditions for memorization on the efficiency of the recall of sequences of opening chess moves was studied. Thirty-nine chess players of different skill levels (from category 2 to grandmaster) and ages (from 17 to 81 years old) were divided into four groups (ELO > 2000 before and after the age of 40; ELO < 2000 before and after the age of 40). They were asked to remember the sequences of moves under three conditions (passive perception, use of imagination, physical generation of moves) and to recall (reproduce) the sequences by making the moves. It turned out that in the passive-perception condition the younger chess players, on the one hand, and the more highly skilled players, on the other, recalled the moves significantly better than did the other groups. Also, in almost all the groups of players the efficiency of memory grew as the condition for memorization and that for reproduction converged, with the highest growth rate found among chess players older than 40 years with ELO > 2000. The current memory of the chess experts was to a greater extent mediated by opening schemes and knowledge than was that of the intermediate players. A hypothesis about the activity specificity of the coding in episodic memory was confirmed and concretized.

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.

In the article, we are going to consider the possibilities of a conceptual framework of the semantic theory of thinking, which could allow us to develop a concept of joint and dialogical cognitive activity. This paper demonstrates O.K. Tikhomirov’s creative influence on the development of cognitive activity psychology. The role of aim-forming in thinking as a process of cognitive activity and genesis of reflection is emphasized. The possibilities of joint and dialogical cognitive activity formation as a result of informative purposes assigned to learners are shown. The role of ethnic prejudices as representations of semantic barriers, during the studying of the virtual mono-ethnic subgroups modeling method (in the conditions of a pilot study of the ethno-psychological phenomena) is considered and is specially allocated. In the present article, the mechanisms of psychotherapeutic influence are also considered and possible intervention programs for an emotional condition are described. Evidences of efficiency of formation and the transformation of personality-semantic education are provided in joint and dialogical counseling, realizing a semantic approach and its development, based on the principles of joint and dialogical cognitive activity.

This paper presents the results of an empirical study investigating individual differences in tolerance and intolerance for uncertainty, using a multidimensional approach. We hypothesized that individual differences in attitudes towards uncertainty are rooted in expectations regarding different sources and subjective evaluations of uncertainty. The results of structural equation modeling and latent profile analysis largely supported these hypotheses. Importantly, latent profile analysis identified four distinct profiles of attitudes towards uncertainty that represented, in addition to classically understood tolerance and intolerance for uncertainty, intolerance for uncertainty with respect to different sources of uncertainty (environment vs. personal relationships).

The need for the psychology of computerization as a separate psychological discipline was suggested by Prof. Oleg K. Tikhomirov in mid-1980s. First he tried to initiate this discipline as a by-product of his experiments in the psychology of thinking, which formed the basis of the Personal Meanings Theory of Thinking, to be formulated later; soon Tikhomirov enlarged the field of the psychology of computerization. The aims of the new discipline were to study (1) the differences between human mental activity and the operations performed by computers that constitute the key elements of artificial intelligence systems, and (2) the impact of information technology on the human psyche. With the passage of several decades, the first aim partly lost its importance, while the second acquired a high degree of significance. In the paper it is argued that Tikhomirov’s suggestion that the psychological consequences of computerization be studied happened to germinate into the development of cyberpsychology (the psychology of the Internet) in Russia.

This article examines the cultural-activity approach to the study of giftedness, which is based on the ideas of L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev, and O. K. Tikhomirov. Three basic principles of this approach are described: the principle of polymorphism, the dynamic principle, and the principle of the holistic analysis of the giftedness phenomenon. The article introduces the results of empirical research (including a 10-year longitudinal study), which verifies the efficacy of the cultural-activity approach and its prospects for solving actual problems in the psychology of giftedness in light of the creation of new diagnostic procedures and methods of education and the development of gifted children.

Tikhomirov’s primary works are considered groundbreaking in the activity theory community. In particular, his efforts in understanding the positive effects of computers on the development of creative activity provide valuable instruction to activity theorists, especially with respect to their influence on new goal formation. Tikhomirov’s quests to better understand “how computers affect the development of intellectual activity” are explicitly revealed in the clinical environment. As the intensive care unit is a preeminent environment to observe creative activity in real time, the primary problems of clinical team communication and collaboration, both aspects being related to joint activity, are identified. As one way to approach such a problem, Tikhomirov’s theory on creative activity is explained in the context of information technology. Then, distributed cognition theory and creative activity theory are joined together and extended into distributedcreative activity theory, as an augmentation of complex interpersonal cognition through the use of health information technology.

In the laboratory of O.K. Tikhomirov, the phenomenon of the acute emotional regulation of productive thinking was justified. This regulation is realized by means of the elaboration of the axiological profile of cognition. The following definition of intellectual emotions can be given: intellectual emotions are the appraisals of specific cognitive objects — contradictions, assumptions, probabilities, and the intermediate and final results of operations. The main aspect of the method used in the research consisted of the synchronous registration of an external (tactile) elaboration of problems, skin galvanic response and verbal utterances regarding tasks to be completed in a game of chess. The principle position in Tikhomirov`s group is the following: intellectual emotions represent not only the energetic resource or catalysts for the thinking process, but also the determinants of its structure.

This article addresses an ethically weighted problem which is related to modern psychology: when a person lives in a closed environment. A new approach to solving this problem is being examined. It is based on the finding of substantial new functional aspects of the cognitive processes of making and losing meaning. The study of this sub-discipline started with O.K. Tikhomirov’s theory of thinking. The phenomenon of “adaptability to changes in lifestyle” is being analyzed. The substantial characteristics of the notion of a “closed environment” as well as the psychological manifestations which appear when one is forced to live in a closed environment or choses to live in one of his or her own volition are being revealed. According to the author, the new approach will allow us to come closer to understanding and being able to explain the psychological mechanisms of the mental upheaval which prisoners in solitary confinement experience.

In this paper the authors put polysemy research into the broader context of research into the mental lexicon, cognitive context conceptual priming, and probabilistic conceptual modelling. The article adopts a novel approach to the resolution of polysemy and puts it to an empirical test. The authors argue that priming plays a key role in the activation of an adequate meaning of a polysemous word. Mental structures, represented by a prime lexical unit, contain relevant conceptual information on the target word meaning. The prime triggers a cognitive context that influences the selection process of the target word sense.

This article describes research on the role of time perspective in a person’s choice of coping strategies in interpersonal conflicts. The interrelationship between different types of coping strategies (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral) and the orientation of time perspective are considered. P. G. Zimbardo’s technique, which defines the orientation of time perspective, and E. Heim’s technique, which is directed at exploring coping strategies, are used in our research. The sample consisted of 295 participants: 156 women and 139 men, with an average age of 32 years. The research shows that a future orientation is directly connected with the choice of cognitive and behavioral coping strategies in interpersonal conflicts, while an orientation to the negative past results in emotional coping strategies. A person’s orientation to the fatalistic present engenders retreat and avoidance of conflict resolution, which are nonadaptive behavioral strategies that include few coping techniques.

Participants in Experiment 1 completed a 36-item life events inventory (LEI) in their native language (Russian) two separate times, over a 1-week period. Between the two LEIs, participants got 12 items translated from Russian into English and 12 items in Russian. They performed a series of English-language exercises on translated items and Russian-language exercises on non-translated items. After performing exercises on items translated from Russian into English participants increased their confidence that these life events had occurred in their personal past. There was no similar effect for nontranslated items and for control items. Experiment 2 was run to examine if two factors - a change in linguistic context and a change in level of abstraction taken together boosted the effect. Participants completed a 24-item LEI in Russian two separate times, over a 1 -week period. Between the two LEIs, participants got 12 of these life events at the higher level of abstraction (e.g., "Got lost in a shopping mall" or "found yourself at an unfamiliar public place") translated from Russian into English. Participants translated the event from English into Russian and wrote a sentence using the gist of the item. After performing language exercises on items at the higher level of abstraction participants increased their confidence that these life events had occurred in their personal past. The magnitude of effect was almost twice bigger than in Experiment 1. These results indicate that a change in linguistic context can produce imagination inflation. We discuss our findings in terms of familiarity misattribution, whereby processing fluency is experienced as familiarity and misattributed to autobiographical memory.

The article reveals the subject-matter of the systemacity (consistency) principle in psychology and some forms of its realization. Basic statements of the original version of the system approach by major Russian psychologist and science institutor Boris F. Lomov are considered. The state and the tendencies of development of system approach in the modern period are discussed.

The article describes various studies on awareness - unawareness processes conducted at the department of General psychology at St.-Petersburg State University, Russia. The topic under discussion is the aftereffect of the negative choice, which was discovered by the author. This phenomenon is related to some other well-known psychological phenomena. The article discusses the meaning of this phenomenon (the aftereffect of the negative choice) for the research program in the psychology of consciousness.

At the current stage the history of researching creativity appears to have drawn a curve which agrees with the methodological conceptions of L.S. Vigotsky. His idea, that of a psychology which intends to study phenomena in their complexity, should replace the methods of dividing into elementary components (atoms) by methods which single out essential non-elemental units, and should make obvious the logic of understanding creative abilities, as it historically developed in the 19lh and 20lh centuries.

The association of self-regulation and personality factors with rational decision making was investigated using an experimental model of political voting. The results revealed different sets of personality characteristics for rational and emotional voters. A self-regulation/personality typology of decision making was then constructed, and traits representing self-regulation, cognition, and personality were examined as predispositions toward rational decision making. As a result, specific connections among these variables were uncovered, through which the primary role of the conscious self-regulation system in the management of rational decision making in a political voting context was established.

The problem of consciousness is examined in the article. It is argued that all the existing approaches to consciousness do not explain the role consciousness plays in human life. An attempt of revealing and describing the principles of the mind’s work is made. Experimental phenomena observed by the author and his followers, particularly, the tendency of previously non-realized ideas not to be realized subsequently, are reviewed. The discussion of these phenomena allows to formulate a novel view on the nature of consciousness.

The recent revolutionary changes in the cognitive psychology of development, touching upon the basic conceptions of psychology, are generalized in this article. The problem of theoretical changes connected with systemic evolutionary approach, dynamic nonlinear system theory, and connectionism, is discussed. The author analyses four basic theses of revolutionary changes: from sensory-motor infant to representative one; from the leading role of activity to the unity of perception and action; about the continuity of the subject formation, instead of axiom of subjectivity of the adult, mature person; about the continuance of genetic and environmental instead of social primacy in the mental development of a person. There are key arguments of new conceptions, obtained by the author and other researchers.

Article is devoted to the issues of symbolic mediation and diagnostic of time perception in sport. Distinction between iconic and symbolic mediation is discussed. Evidences of effective implementation of symbolic mediation in sport are examined. Means of optimization of sportsmen and sportswomen training by the instrumentality of symbol are considered. The results of time perception diagnostic of Russian synchronized swimmers are described. It was shown that sportswomen are greatly varied in accuracy and stability of reproduction of long (2–5 sec) and estimation of short (less than 250 ms) time intervals, which were filled with different contents – ticks of metronome, persistent sound, pressuring the button and etc. The improvement of individual characteristics of time perception is an important psychological resource of sports achievements increase.

This article stresses the social importance of the problem of giftedness and in this connection the necessity to clarify this concept scientifically. The history of this problem reveals the origins of reduction of the concept and the wide-spread notion of giftedness as "intelligence level above average. "There are two reasons of it: 1) Galton's components of giftedness were put into a complex; 2) there were no measuring techniques of this complex. The unit of the analysis of giftedness was formed after Galton's notion of giftedness as comprised of components was supplemented with the method of measurement -"systematic observation"- and understood as an ability to generate activity at one's own initiative. Then it became possible to realize Galton's concept of giftedness as a manifestation of mind and character.

The present paper describes two studies that investigated incremental predictive value of tolerance and intolerance for uncertainty in predicting creativity. The first study shows significant positive incremental predictive power of tolerance for uncertainty over general intelligence in predicting creativity. The second study reveals a negative relationship between intolerance for uncertainty and creativity with fluid intelligence scores being already accounted for. Overall, tolerance for uncertainty promotes creativity, whereas intolerance for uncertainty impedes it, demonstrating that creativity draws on both intellectual potential and processes of uncertainty acceptance.

This research is devoted to the investigation of the role of conscious self-regulation in human development and activity. The concept of conscious self-regulation of a subject's voluntary activity and the history of its research conducted in Psychological Institute RAE are discussed. The results of the research dedicated to the typology of individual styles of self-regulation and their relationship with educational and professional activity effectiveness are presented. Personal dispositions have specific influence on the individual peculiarities of regulatory profile. It is concluded that the integrated system of individual self-regulation includes dynamic and content aspects of a personality, its conscious and subconscious structures for development and achievement of goals

The article describes various aspects of symbolic mediation and is aimed at showing its specificity. The author views a situation of uncertainty as a structural element of a symbol and introduces the notion of a symbol being a special tool for orientation in such situations. On the one hand, a symbol is contrasted to a sign, and on the other, is regarded as a transitional form in the process of its mastering. Author pays special attention to understanding the role of symbol in connection with understanding of play and its role in child’s development. Emotional and cognitive functions of symbol are defined and illustrated by examples.

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.

Background. The problem of polysemy has attracted scholars’ attention since antiq­uity and interest in the phenomenon never lessens. A substantial number of works have been published on the cognitive nature of meaning ambiguity. Despite a new emphasis on the cognitive aspects of polysemy, little has been done towards an inte­grated approach to the study of this linguistic phenomenon.

Objective and Method. This work’s objective was to contribute to an integrated interdisciplinary theory of polysemy. To this end, we explored the cognitive founda­tion of meaning using empirical and theoretical research methods, but mostly relying on semiotic analysis of texts central to the humanities. In particular, we analyzed the dichotomy of conscious vs. unconscious processing in the acquisition and use of polysemy. For the identification of cognitive patterns of polysemy development in ontogenesis, we used probabilistic conceptual modeling.

Results. The acquisition of meaning is a conscious process: it is a conscious interaction of the speaker with an interlocutor and their common social environ­ment. On the other hand, meanings are unconscious unless a connection between the phonological, acoustic form and the concept is established. Correspondingly, polysemy is conscious when a new meaning is formed in the course of social inter­action. However, polysemy, as an inherent language phenomenon, remains uncon­scious for native speakers, who are unaware of its presence provided they are not involved in some form of intentional language games (pun, zeugma or intended ambiguity).

Conclusion. The present approach to the analysis of meaning ambiguity seems to be a productive endeavor. Further research into polysemy has to be based on a range of additional types of evidence, including those obtained by methods of cogni­tive neuroscience.

Background. The sense of agency (SoA) provides us with the experience of be­ing a physical agent with free will. On a phenomenological basis, SoA can be di­vided into sensory components (feeling of agency, FoA) and more cognitive com­ponents (judgment of agency, JoA). Both these components can be independently measured.

Objective and Method. A new method was developed to test the possibility of preserving SoA and its components in the atypical conditions of passive movements. Parameters of the participant’s movement in response to a visual stimulus (reaction time, speed, and amplitude) were measured and used to control a servo that simu­lated the movement (executed passive movements). The scores on the psychometric scale of the agency and the event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for variable movement delays relative to the stimulus onset.

Results. It was found that the FoA was not present under passive movement con­ditions. At the same time, participants associated these movements with their own activity (JoA), even when their delay after the stimulus onset was too short to be ac­tively reproduced. The somatosensory ERPs’ amplitude decreased for the expected movements, demonstrating an inverse relationship with the agency scores. The lowest amplitude was observed when movements were actuated by another hand. The results can be explained using a predictive forward model, since the FoA was not observed in the absence of active movements. On the other hand, the ERPs’ data and the presence of JoA with various delays between the stimulus and movement support the postdic­tive model of agency, where the leading role is assigned to prejudice and contextual knowledge related to the action.

Conclusion. It seems that the “context pressure” of the situation, demanding a mandatory response to the stimulus, forms a cognitive prediction of movements without firm sensory representation.

Background. The structure of consciousness has long been a cornerstone problem in the cognitive sciences. Recently it took on applied significance in the design of computer agents and mobile robots. This problem can thus be examined from perspectives of phi­losophy, neuropsychology, and computer modeling.

Objective. In the present paper, we address the problem of the computational model of consciousness by designing computer agents aimed at simulating “speech understand­ing” and irony. Further, we look for a “minimal architecture” that is able to mimic the effects of consciousness in computing systems.

Method. For the base architecture, we used a software agent, which was programmed to operate with scripts (productions or inferences), to process incoming texts (or events) by extracting their semantic representations, and to select relevant reactions.

Results. It is shown that the agent can simulate speech irony by replacing a direct aggressive behavior with a positive sarcastic utterance. This is achieved by balancing be­tween several scripts available to the agent. We suggest that the extension of this scheme may serve as a minimal architecture of consciousness, wherein the agent distinguishes own representations and potential cognitive representations of other agents. Within this architecture, there are two stages of processing. First, the agent activates several scripts by placing their if-statements or actions (inferences) within a processing scope. Second, the agent differentiates the scripts depending on their activation by another script. This multilevel scheme allows the agent to simulate imaginary situations, one’s own imagi­nary actions, and imaginary actions of other agents, i.e. the agent demonstrates features considered essential for conscious agents in the philosophy of mind and cognitive psy­chology.

Conclusion. Our computer systems for understanding speech and simulation of irony can serve as a basis for further modeling of the effects of consciousness.