Cognitive psychology

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.