Psychological processes and states. Basic psychological processes
Saratov State University named after N. G. Chernyshevsky
Psychology faculty
in the discipline "Psychology"
on the topic: Basics psychological processes
Completed by: Berezina D.V.
Saratov 2011
Introduction
1. Basic psychological processes and states
2.Cognitive psychological processes
2.1 Feelings
2.2 Perception
2.3 Thinking
3. Universal mental processes
3.1 Memory
3.2 Attention
3.3 Imagination
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
The topic of the essay is “Psychological processes.”
Psychological processes are inherent in every person. Mental processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking and speech. They are essential components human activity.
Psychological processes are not just involved in activity, but they develop in it. All mental processes are interconnected and represent a single whole. In the absence of any of the mental processes (speech, thinking, etc.), a person becomes inferior. Activity shapes mental processes. Any activity is a combination of internal and external behavioral actions and operations. We will look at each type mental activity separately.
1. Basic psychological processes and states
Traditionally, in Russian psychology it is customary to distinguish two groups of psychological processes.
Specific, or actually cognitive, processes, which are sensation, perception and thinking. The result of these processes is the subject’s knowledge about the world and about himself, obtained either through the senses or rationally:
· sensation is the identification of the properties of an object, sensory, sensuality;
· perception is the perception of an object as a whole, as well as perception is the perception of images, objects;
· thinking is a reflection of the relationships between objects, their properties essential for cognition.
Nonspecific, i.e. universal, mental processes - memory, attention and imagination. These processes are also called end-to-end, in the sense that they pass through any activity and ensure its implementation. Universal mental processes are necessary conditions for cognition, but are not reducible to it. Thanks to universal mental processes, a cognitive, developing subject has the opportunity to maintain the unity of “his Self” over time:
· memory allows a person to retain past experiences;
· attention helps to extract actual (real) experience;
· imagination predicts future experience.
2. Cognitive psychological processes
1 Feelings
So, the process of cognition is the acquisition, retention and preservation of knowledge about the world. Sensations are one of the components of the cognitive process.
Sensations are defined as the process of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena of the objective world during their direct impact to receptors. Physiological basis sensation is a nervous process that occurs when a stimulus acts on an analyzer adequate to it. To this, perhaps, we can only add that sensations also reflect the state of the subject’s body with the help of receptors located in his body. Sensations are the original source of knowledge, an important condition formation of the psyche and its normal functioning.
The need for constant sensations is clearly manifested in the case when there are no external stimuli (with sensory isolation). As experiments have shown, in this case the psyche ceases to function normally: hallucinations occur, thinking is impaired, pathology of perception of one’s body is noted, etc. Specific problems psychological nature arise when sensory deprivation, i.e. when inflow is limited external influences, which is well known from the example of the development of the psyche of people who are blind or deaf, as well as those with poor vision and hearing.
Human sensations are extremely diverse, although since the time of Aristotle, for a very long time they talked about only five senses - vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. In the 19th century knowledge about the composition of sensations has expanded dramatically as a result of the description and study of their new types, such as vestibular, vibration, “muscular-articular” or kinesthetic, etc.
Properties of sensations
Whatever the sensation, it can be described using several characteristics, properties inherent in it.
Modality is a qualitative characteristic in which the specificity of sensation as a simple mental signal is manifested in comparison with a nervous signal. First of all, such types of sensations as visual, auditory, olfactory, etc. are distinguished. However, each type of sensation has its own modal characteristics. For visual sensations, these may be color tone, lightness, saturation; for auditory - pitch, timbre, volume; for tactile - hardness, roughness, etc.
Localization is a spatial characteristic of sensations, i.e. information about the localization of the stimulus in space.
Sometimes (as, for example, in the case of pain and interoceptive, “internal” sensations) localization is difficult and uncertain. The “probe problem” is interesting in this regard: when we write or cut something, the sensations are localized at the tip of the pen or knife, that is, not at all where the probe contacts the skin and acts on it.
Intensity is a classic quantitative characteristic. The problem of measuring the intensity of sensation is one of the main ones in psychophysics.
The basic psychophysical law reflects the relationship between the magnitude of the sensation and the magnitude of the acting stimulus. Psychophysics explains the variety of observed forms of behavior and mental states primarily by differences in the physical situations that cause them. The task is to establish a connection between body and soul, an object and the feeling associated with it. The area of irritation causes sensation. Each sense organ has its own boundaries - which means there is an area of sensation. Such variants of the basic psychophysical law are known as the logarithmic law of G. Fechner, the power law of S. Stevens, as well as the generalized psychophysical law proposed by Yu. M. Zabrodin.
Duration is a temporary characteristic of a sensation. It is determined functional state sensory organ, but mainly by the time of action of the stimulus and its intensity. The sensation occurs later than the stimulus begins to act, and does not disappear immediately with its cessation. The period from the onset of the stimulus to the onset of sensation is called the latent (hidden) period of sensation. It is not the same for different types sensations (for tactile - 130 ms, for pain - 370 ms, for taste - 50 ms) and can change dramatically with diseases of the nervous system.
After the cessation of the stimulus, its trace remains for some time in the form of a consistent image, which can be either positive (corresponding to the characteristics of the stimulus) or negative (having opposite characteristics, for example, colored in an additional color). We usually do not notice positive consistent images because of their short duration. The appearance of sequential images can be explained by the phenomenon of retinal fatigue.
Auditory sensations, similar to visual ones, can also be accompanied by consistent images. The most comparable phenomenon in this case is “ringing in the ears”, i.e. unpleasant feeling, which is often accompanied by exposure to deafening sounds.
2.2 Perception
Representatives of psychology interpret perception as a kind of holistic configuration - a gestalt. Integrity - according to Gestalt psychology - is always the selection of a figure from the background. Details, parts, properties can only be separated from the whole image later. Gestalt psychologists have established many laws of perceptual organization, completely different from the laws of associations, according to which elements are connected into a coherent structure (laws of proximity, isolation, good form, etc.). They have convincingly proven that holistic structure the image influences the perception of individual elements and individual sensations. The same element, being included in different images of perception, is perceived differently. For example, two identical circles appear different if one is surrounded by large and the other by small circles, etc.
The main features of perception are identified:
) integrity and structure - perception reflects a holistic image of an object, which, in turn, is formed on the basis of generalized knowledge about the individual properties and qualities of the object. Perception is capable of capturing not only individual parts of sensations (individual notes), but also a generalized structure woven from these sensations (the entire melody);
) constancy - the preservation of certain properties of the image of an object that seem constant to us. Thus, an object known to us (for example, a hand), distant from us, will seem to us exactly the same size as the same object that we see close. The property of constancy is involved here: the properties of the image approach the true properties of this object. Our perceptual system corrects the inevitable errors caused by the infinite diversity of the environment and creates adequate images of perception. When a person puts on glasses that distort objects and enters an unfamiliar room, he gradually learns to correct the distortions caused by the glasses, and finally ceases to notice these distortions, although they are reflected on the retina. So, the constancy of perception that is formed in the process of objective activity is necessary condition human orientation in a changing world;
) the objectivity of perception is an act of objectification, that is, the attribution of information received from the external world to this world. There is a certain system of actions that provides the subject with the discovery of the objectivity of the world, and main role touch and movement play a role. Objectivity also plays a big role in regulating behavior. Thanks to this quality, we can distinguish, for example, a brick from a block of explosives, although they will be the same in appearance;
) meaningfulness. Although perception arises as a result of the direct impact of a stimulus on receptors, perceptual images always have a certain semantic meaning. Perception is thus connected with thinking and speech. We perceive the world through the prism of meaning. To consciously perceive an object means mentally naming it and attributing the perceived object to certain group, a class of objects, summarize it in a word. For example, when we look at a watch, we do not see something round, shiny, etc., we see a specific object - a watch. This property of perception is called categorization, i.e. assigning what is perceived to a certain class of objects or phenomena. This connection between perception and thinking appears especially clearly under difficult conditions of perception, when hypotheses about the belonging of an object to a class are consistently put forward and tested. In other cases, according to G. Helmholtz, unconscious conclusions are “triggered”; sensation perception thinking memory
5) activity. During the process of perception, the motor components of the analyzers are involved (hand movements during touch, eye movements during visual perception, etc.). In addition, it is necessary to be able to actively move your body during the process of perception;
) property of apperception. The perceptual system actively “builds” the image of perception, selectively using not all, but the most informative properties, parts, elements of the stimulus. In this case, information from memory and past experience is also used, which is added to sensory data (apperception). During the process of formation, the Image itself and the actions to build it are constantly adjusted through Feedback, and the image is compared with the reference one.
Thus, perception depends not only on the stimulus, but also on the perceiving object itself - specific person. Perception is always affected by the personality characteristics of the perceiver, his attitude towards what is perceived, needs, aspirations, emotions at the time of perception, etc. Perception is thus closely related to the content of a person’s mental life.
2.3 Thinking
For example - highest stage processing information by a person or animal, the process of establishing connections between objects or phenomena of the surrounding world; or - the process of reflecting the essential properties of objects, as well as connections between them, which leads to the emergence of ideas about objective reality. Debate over the definition continues to this day.
In pathopsychology and neuropsychology, thinking is considered one of the highest mental functions. It is considered as an activity that has a motive, a goal, a system of actions and operations, a result and control.
Thinking is the highest level of human cognition, the process of reflection of the surrounding environment in the brain real world, based on two fundamentally different psychophysiological mechanisms: the formation and continuous replenishment of the stock of concepts, ideas and the derivation of new judgments and conclusions. Thinking allows you to gain knowledge about such objects, properties and relationships of the surrounding world that cannot be directly perceived using the first signal system. The forms and laws of thinking are the subject of consideration of logic, and psychophysiological mechanisms are the subject of psychology and physiology, respectively. (from the point of view of physiology and psychology, this definition is more correct)
3. Universal mental processes
Cognitive psychology, considering memory both as a function and as a process at the same time and trying to explain the patterns of its functioning, presents it as a developing, multi-level storage system (sensory register, short-term memory, long-term memory). Memory as a system of processes of organizing information for the purposes of memorization, preservation and reproduction can also be considered as a substructure of intelligence - a systemic interaction of cognitive abilities and the knowledge available to an individual.
Being the most important characteristic of all mental processes, memory ensures unity and integrity human personality.
Individual types of memory are distinguished in accordance with three main criteria:
) according to the nature of mental activity predominant in the activity, memory is divided into motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical;
) according to the nature of the goals of the activity - into involuntary and voluntary;
) according to the duration of fastening and preserving the material - short-term, long-term and operational.
3.2 Attention
Attention is one of the aspects of human consciousness. In any conscious activity of people it manifests itself to a greater or lesser extent: whether a person listens to music or peers at a drawing of a detail. Attention is included in the process of perception, in the process of memory, thinking, and imagination. The presence of attention in human activity makes it productive, organized and active.
The problem of attention was first developed within the framework of the psychology of consciousness. The main task was considered to be the study of human inner experience. But while introspection remained the main method of research, the problem of attention eluded psychologists. Attention served only as a “stand”, a tool for their mental experiences. Using an objective experimental method, W. Wundt discovered that simple reactions to visual and auditory stimuli depend not only on the characteristics of external stimuli, but also on the attitude of the subject to the perception of this stimulus. He called the simple entry of any content into consciousness perception, and the focusing of clear consciousness on individual contents attention, or apperception. For such followers of Wundt as E. Titchener and T. Ribot, attention became the cornerstone of their psychological systems (Dormyshev Yu. B., Romanov V. Ya., 1995).
At the beginning of the century, this situation changed dramatically. Gestalt psychologists believed that objective structure fields, and not the subject’s intentions, determine the perception of objects and events. Behaviorists rejected attention and consciousness as the main concepts of the psychology of consciousness. They tried to completely abandon these words, since they mistakenly hoped that they could develop a little more precise concepts, which would allow, using strict quantitative characteristics, to objectively describe the corresponding psychological processes. However, forty years later, the concepts of “consciousness” and “attention” returned to psychology (Velichkovsky B. M., 1982).
It took psychologists decades of experimental work and observation to describe the concept of “attention.” In modern psychology, it is customary to highlight the following criteria of attention:
) external reactions - motor, vegetative, providing conditions for better perception of the signal. These include turning the head, fixing the eyes, facial expressions and posture of concentration, holding the breath, vegetative components indicative reaction;
) concentration on performing a specific activity. This criterion is basic for “activity” approaches to the study of attention. It is associated with the organization of activities and control over their implementation;
) increasing the productivity of cognitive and executive activities. IN in this case we're talking about about increasing the effectiveness of “attentive” action (perceptual, mnemonic, mental, motor) compared to “inattentive”;
) selectivity (selectivity) of information. This criterion is expressed in the ability to actively perceive, remember, analyze only part of the incoming information, as well as in responding only to limited circle external incentives;
) clarity and distinctness of the contents of consciousness in the field of attention. This subjective criterion was put forward within the framework of the psychology of consciousness. The entire field of consciousness was divided into a focal area and periphery. Units of the focal area of consciousness appear stable, bright, and the contents of the periphery of consciousness are clearly indistinguishable and merge into a pulsating cloud of indefinite shape. Such a structure of consciousness is possible not only during the perception of objects, but also during memories and reflections.
Not all attentional phenomena are associated with consciousness. The remarkable Russian psychologist H.H. Lange divided the objective and subjective sides of attention. He believed that in our consciousness there is, as it were, one brightly lit place, moving away from which mental phenomena darken or fade, becoming less and less conscious. Attention, considered objectively, is nothing more than the relative dominance of a given representation at a given moment of time; subjectively, it means being focused on this impression (N. N. Lange, 1976).
Within the framework of various approaches, psychologists focus on certain manifestations of attention: on vegetative reactions of information selection, control over the performance of activities, or the state of consciousness. However, if we try to generalize the entire phenomenology of attention, we can come to the following definition.
Attention is the selection of the necessary information, provision of selective action programs and maintaining constant control over their progress (Luria A.R., 1975).
The main properties of attention are the focus of attention on certain objects and phenomena (in particular, external and internal), the degree and volume of attention.
The degree of attention is a characteristic of its intensity. It is assessed as a subjective experience
3.3 Imagination
The product or result of the process of imagination is images of the imagination. They can arise in accordance with instructions, instructions from another subject, based on viewing photographs, paintings, films, listening to music, perceiving individual sounds and noises, or through a description of an event, thing, character, or by association with something . The list of ways of producing imagination images alone shows its close connection with other mental processes that have a figurative nature (sensation, perception, memory, ideas, thinking).
Imagination is based on past experience, and therefore images of the imagination are always secondary, that is, they are “rooted” in what was previously experienced, perceived, felt by a person. But unlike memory processes, the task of preserving and accurately reproducing information is not set here. In the imagination, experience is transformed (generalized, supplemented, combined, acquires a different emotional coloring, its scale changes).
In contrast to mental images (concepts, judgments, conclusions), the control function here is significantly reduced. The imagination is relatively free, because it is not constrained by the task of assessing the correctness of what our consciousness or subconscious produces.
Many researchers as distinctive feature The process of imagination is called novelty. But it should be noted that the novelty here is not absolute, but relative. The image of the imagination is new in relation to what was seen, heard, perceived at some point in time or point of view, approach to the interpretation of a person. In the processes of creativity there is more of this novelty, in the recreating imagination there is less.
Finally, imagination is related to representation by the clarity of images; they can be attributed to any modality (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, etc.).
Basic functions of imagination
Goal setting - the future result of an activity is created in the imagination, it exists only in the consciousness of the subject and directs his activity to obtain what he wants.
Anticipation (anticipation) - modeling the future (positive or negative consequences, course of interaction, content of the situation) by summarizing elements of past experience and establishing cause-and-effect relationships between its elements; in the imagination, the future is born from the past.
Combination and planning - creating an image of the desired future by correlating elements of perception and past experience with the results of the analytical-synthetic activity of the mind.
Substitution of reality - a person may be deprived of the opportunity to actually act or be in a certain situation, then by the power of his imagination he is transported there, performs actions in his imagination, thereby replacing real reality with an imaginary one.
Penetration into the inner world of another person - on the basis of a description or demonstration, the imagination is able to create pictures of what another being has experienced (experienced at a given moment in time), thereby making it possible to become familiar with his inner world; this function serves as the basis for understanding and interpersonal communication.
Thus, imagination is an integral part of human activity and life, social interaction and cognition.
Conclusion
In the abstract we examined two groups of psychological processes: specific, or cognitive processes themselves, which are sensation, perception and thinking; nonspecific, i.e. universal, mental processes - memory, attention and imagination.
Thus, sensations are defined as the process of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena of the objective world during their direct impact on receptors. The physiological basis of sensation is a nervous process that occurs when a stimulus acts on an analyzer adequate to it. To this, perhaps, we can only add that sensations also reflect the state of the subject’s body with the help of receptors located in his body. Sensations are the initial source of knowledge, an important condition for the formation of the psyche and its normal functioning.
Perception is a reflection of integral objects and phenomena with their direct impact on the senses. In the course of perception, individual sensations are ordered and combined into holistic images of things. Unlike sensations, which reflect individual properties of the stimulus, perception reflects the object as a whole, in the totality of its properties.
Thinking is the process of modeling systematic relations of the surrounding world on the basis of unconditional provisions. However, in psychology there are many other definitions.
Memory is the remembering, preservation and subsequent reproduction by an individual of his experience. The following basic processes are distinguished in memory: memorization, storage, reproduction and forgetting. These processes are formed in activity and are determined by it.
Memory is the most important, defining characteristic of the mental life of an individual. The role of memory cannot be reduced only to recording what “happened in the past.” After all, no action in the “present” is conceivable outside of memory processes; the course of any, even the most elementary, mental act necessarily presupposes the retention of each of its elements for “coupling” with subsequent ones. Without the ability for such cohesion, development is impossible: a person would remain “eternally in the position of a newborn.”
Attention is the concentration of consciousness and its focus on something that has one or another meaning for a person. Direction means the selective nature of this activity and its preservation, and concentration means deepening into this activity and distracting from the rest. From this definition it follows that attention does not have its own product; it only improves the result of other mental processes. Attention is inseparable from other mental processes and states.
Imagination is one of the “universal” mental processes. Imagination is the mental process of creating an image of an object by transforming reality or an idea of it. Imagination supplements perception with elements of past experience, a person’s own experiences, transforms the past and present through generalization, connection with feelings, sensations, and ideas.
Bibliography
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This section will cover the following topics: mental processes from the point of view of cybernetic science, the theory of signals and mental processes, information structure nervous processes and mental images.
The concept of mental processes
Definition
Mental processes represent certain structural elements, which can be isolated from the psyche as a whole; dynamic reflection of reality in various forms mental phenomena.
The peculiarity of mental processes is their short duration.
All mental processes can be divided into cognitive, emotional and volitional.
We can see what is included in each section in Figure 1.
Figure 1. “Types of mental processes”
Let us consider each of their types in more detail.
Cognitive mental processes:
- Feeling - defined process reflections of individual properties of the external world. Sensation is the simplest mental process. All living organisms with a nervous system have the ability to sense sensations. Conscious sensations are characteristic only of living beings with a brain. The mechanism of sensation formation will be discussed in subsection 4.3. "Information structure of nervous processes and mental images."
- Perception is a holistic reflection of objects and phenomena of the objective world with their direct impact at a given moment on the senses. Basic properties of perception: integrity, objectivity, constancy, meaningfulness, selectivity.
- Representation is the process of reflecting phenomena of the external world, recreated on the basis of previous experience. Basic properties of views:
- fragmentation - the presented image often lacks any of its features;
- instability;
- variability - when a person enriches himself with new experience and knowledge, a change in ideas about the objects of the surrounding world occurs.
- objective-active thinking is carried out during actions with objects with direct perception of the object in reality;
- visual-figurative thinking occurs when presenting object images;
- abstract logical thinking is the result of logical operations with concepts.
The main mental operations include: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, concretization, systematization (or classification).
- Memory is a form of mental reflection, the main functions of which are: consolidation, preservation and reproduction of experience. Memory processes include the following:
- memorization is a memory process that results in the consolidation of something new by associating it with what was previously acquired; memorization is always selective - not everything that affects our senses is stored in memory, but only what is important to a person or aroused his interest and the greatest emotions;
- preservation – the process of processing and retaining information;
- reproduction – the process of retrieving stored material from memory;
- Forgetting is the process of getting rid of long-received, rarely used information.
Emotional mental processes represent a person’s experiences of his relationship to objects and phenomena of reality, to what he knows, to himself and other people.
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In its manifestations, the psyche is complex and diverse. Usually there are three large groups of mental phenomena, namely:
1) mental processes,
2) mental states,
3) mental properties.
Mental processes are a dynamic reflection of reality in various forms of mental phenomena.
A mental process is the course of a mental phenomenon that has a beginning, development and end, manifested in the form of a reaction. It must be borne in mind that the end of a mental process is closely related to the beginning of a new process. Hence the continuity of mental activity in a person’s waking state.
Mental processes are caused both by external influences and by stimulation of the nervous system coming from the internal environment of the body.
All mental processes are divided into:
1. Regulatory:
Will is a person’s conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, expressed in the ability to overcome internal and external difficulties when performing purposeful actions and deeds;
Attention is the direction and concentration of mental activity on something specific, implying an increase in the level of sensory, intellectual and motor activity individual.
2. Cognitive:
a) sensual
Sensation is the simplest mental. a process consisting of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena material world, and internal states the body when the stimulus directly affects the corresponding receptors;
Perception - subjective image object, phenomenon or process that directly affects analyzer or a system of analyzers.
Presentation - visual image object or phenomenon (event) arising on the basis of past experience (data sensations And perceptions) by his playback V memory or in imagination.
b) logical
Thinking is the highest mental function, i.e. the process of a generalized and indirect reflection of reality in its essential connections and relationships, the highest form of human creative activity. M. insofar as the process of reflection of objects, insofar as it is a creative transformation of their subjective images into consciousness people, their values And meaning to resolve real contradictions in the circumstances of people's life, to form new goals, discover new means and plans for achieving them, revealing the essence of the objective forces of nature and society.
3. Emotional
Emotions are mental. processes that occur in the form of experiences and reflect the personal significance and assessment of external and internal situations for human life.
4. Integrative:
Memory is the process of organizing and preserving past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activity and return to the sphere of consciousness.
Speech is a historically established form communication people through language.It is a language that functions in the context of individual consciousness.
Speech communication is carried out according to the laws of a given language (Russian, English, etc.), which is a system of phonetic, lexical, grammatical and stylistic means and rules of communication.
The role of mental processes in the development of personality is great, since they ensure the formation of knowledge and the primary regulation of human behavior and activity.
In complex mental activity, various processes are connected and form a single stream of consciousness, providing an adequate reflection of reality.
Mental processes occur with varying speed and intensity depending on the characteristics of external influences and the state of the individual.
Sensations are a reflection of the properties and states of objects that affect the senses. On the one hand, sensations reflect external stimulus, i.e. they are objective. On the other hand, sensations depend on individual characteristics and from the states of the nervous system, thus, are subjective in nature. For a sensation to arise, for the awareness of any factor or element of reality, it is necessary that the energy (chemical, mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic or electrical) emanating from it becomes sufficient to excite the nerve receptors. After this, nerve endings develop electrical impulses, and the process of sensation begins.
I. Sherrington proposed the following classification of sensations:
1) interoreceptive - reflect internal processes in the body (pain, thirst, hunger);
2) exteroceptive - reflect external influences on receptors located on the surface of the body;
3) proprioceptive - located in tendons and muscles.
In turn, I. Sherrington divides exteroceptive sensations into contact (taste, tactile) and distant (auditory, visual). The sense of smell occupies an intermediate position.
Information received through the senses is received and processed, resulting in images of phenomena or objects appearing. The formation of these images is called the process of perception.
Perception has a number of features:
1) The first is called apperception, i.e. perceptions depend on a person's past experiences. The brain, when receiving contradictory, incomplete or ambiguous data, interprets it in accordance with the existing system of knowledge, images, and individual differences. This feature explains the difference in the perception of the same phenomena and objects by one person or different people V different times and under different conditions.
2) Another feature is called constancy. Regardless of the angle and distance from which we look at an object, perception retains the size and color of this image. For example, a white shirt will remain white both in bright light and in the shade. But if you look through a hole at a small piece of it, then it will most likely seem gray to us.
3) Integrity is another feature of perception and it lies in the fact that perception generalizes knowledge about the individual properties of objects or phenomena perceived through sensations, and “completes” them into a holistic image.
4) A person is able not only to perceive an object, but also to attribute a certain meaning to it, to designate it with a word, this indicates the meaningful nature of perception.
5) Selectivity - consists in the preferential perception of some objects over others. Some objects are primary for perception at a certain period of time, while others are secondary.
The object of perception must cause a certain reaction in a person, which allows one to “tune” the senses to it and begin the process of perception itself. This voluntary or involuntary process, reflecting concentration and focus on some object of perception, is called attention.
Attention can be characterized using the following features:
1. Concentration - an indicator of the degree of fixation on a certain object, the focus of attention on it.
2. Intensity of perception - characterizes its effectiveness.
3. Stability - the ability to maintain for a long period of time high level intensity and concentration of attention. Determined by temperament, nervous system, motivation (personal interests, novelty, significance of the need) and external conditions.
4. Volume - the number of objects that are simultaneously in the focus of attention. In children this number is 2-3 objects, in an adult it reaches.
5. Distribution - the ability to concentrate attention on several objects at once, to follow them, without losing any of them from the field of attention. According to some sources, Napoleon Bonaparte could simultaneously dictate up to seven documents to his secretaries.
6. Switching attention is a voluntary or involuntary movement of attention from one object to another, a fairly quick change in the focus of attention.
Memory is a cognitive quality, the ability of the brain to remember, store and reproduce information.
Memory capacity varies depending on at different ages, for example, in children it is much less than in adults, which is why we don’t remember what happened to us in early childhood. Over the years, the amount of information that can be stored in the head gradually increases. The opinion that people old age memory deteriorates. But it is not so. In reality, everything depends on the person. If you actively use your memory, develop it, and comprehend something new, then it will remain beautiful for a long time.
The process of forgetting is a process that is often beyond our control. During life, the human brain receives a huge amount of information, most of which we subsequently forget. Forgetting occurs the faster and becomes deeper, the less often certain material is used in human activity, the more its significance decreases.
Memorization, storage, recognition, recollection and reproduction are the basic processes of memory.
Memorization is the process that is responsible for entering information into memory.
There are unintentional (involuntary) and intentional (voluntary) memorization.
Involuntary memorization occurs after perceiving an object without any desire on our part. In most cases, such memorization is inaccurate and incomplete, since it is random.
Intentional remembering is intentional, selective, and goal-directed. Very often accompanied by volitional efforts (for example, memorizing educational material).
Retention of information perceived by a person in the brain occurs during the storage phase.
One more important process memory is recognition - identification of objects, objects and phenomena known from past experience.
An arbitrary memory process that searches, retrieves information about the past, and, if necessary, restores it, is called recollection.
Reproduction is the extraction of stored material from long-term memory and its transfer to short-term memory. If the reproduction of information occurs without the individual’s intention, a thought arises on its own, then such a process is called involuntary. Voluntary reproduction, on the contrary, occurs at the request of a person.
People's memory varies according to the level of development of its types. The most common are verbal-logical and figurative memory. Verbal-logical memory is the memorization of thoughts and their expression. Figurative memory is divided into motor, auditory and visual, olfactory, tactile and taste memory. In people, in to a greater extent, visual and auditory memory. Representatives of pure memory types are very rare. Most mixed type memory.
Depending on the duration of information storage, long-term and short-term memory are distinguished.
Thinking is the process of a person reflecting reality. Thinking is impossible without language. Using thinking, a person can cognize not only what is directly perceived through the senses, but also what is hidden from direct perception, what can only be known as a result of generalization, analysis or comparison.
The main forms of thinking are inferences, concepts and judgments.
A thought that reflects general and distinctive features phenomena and objects is called a concept. Judgments reveal the content of concepts. Judgments are thoughts about the connection between objects or phenomena. Judgments are expressed in the form of words - verbally or writing, silently or out loud Judgments can be true or false. Conclusions based on several judgments are formed into conclusions. Conclusions in which, from the known general provisions draw conclusions about particular cases, called deduction. The opposite of deduction is induction - a general conclusion is drawn from particular cases.
The thinking process is carried out with the help next operations: synthesis, analysis, generalization, comparison, abstraction, specification, classification, systematization.
Synthesis is the reunification of the dismembered into a whole. Reverse process- analysis - dividing the whole into parts. The comparison operation is a comparison of objects, phenomena and identifying what they have in common or different. Generalization is the operation of combining several phenomena according to common characteristics. Distraction from unimportant signs and highlighting the main ones common features called abstraction. Concretization involves filling an object or phenomenon with specific characteristics. Classification is the grouping of objects according to certain characteristics. When carrying out systematization, we arrange individual objects, objects or phenomena in a certain order.
Human thinking is characterized by depth, flexibility, breadth, speed, determination, independence and some other qualities.
Speech is a mental process that means communication using language. The language of modern man is the result historical development. Speech exists in unity with thinking. Its content depends on the person’s temperament, character, interests, abilities, experience, and profession. Using speech, people convey knowledge and communicate with each other.
There are oral and written speech, external and internal, dialogic and monologue, prepared and unprepared, professional and everyday.
Imagination is the transformation of ideas about reality and the creation, based on experience, of new ideas that were absent previously. In other words, imagination means a person’s ability to mentally create an image of an object or phenomenon that does not yet exist in reality. A synonym for imagination is fantasy. Imagination is a very important cognitive process. Thanks to him, a person can foresee the course of events, anticipate the consequences of his actions.
Imagination can be active or passive. Active imagination (also called intentional) means creating new ideas according to at will person, which is accompanied by any effort. A distinction is made between recreative and creative active imagination. For example, an investigator, based on evidence, traces from the scene of an incident, builds enough full picture crimes. Creative imagination is the creation of images of objects that do not exist in reality. An example of such imagination is invention and similar creative activities. With passive imagination, a person does not set any goals for himself - images arise spontaneously, on their own.
temperament memory personality thinking
One of the most complex, diverse in its manifestations and least studied in human body are mental processes. The table presented in this article clearly divides the phenomena occurring in our psyche into three main groups: by properties, states and processes. All this is a reflection of reality, which can be traced in dynamics, that is, each such phenomenon has its beginning, develops and ends with the resulting reaction. Mental processes (the table clearly demonstrates this) interact extremely closely with each other. Mental activity continuously flows from one process to another when a person is awake.
Mental conditions
Processes occurring in the human psyche can be caused by external influences that irritate nervous system, and also be born directly in the internal environment of the body, depending on the state in which it is at that moment. The table divides mental processes into three main groups: cognitive, emotional and volitional. Here their components are classified in detail: perception and sensations, memory and representation, imagination and thinking belong to cognitive processes, and active and passive experiences belong to emotional ones. The table reveals volitional mental processes as the ability to make decisions, execute and
Let's take a closer look at the column that represents the state of the human psyche. The table represents motivational, that is, cognitive mental processes most widely, up to the actualization of needs. The reasons are clear: they are the ones who can provide the correct help to form knowledge and regulate behavior. Various cognitive mental processes merge into a single stream of consciousness, a table of which is presented in the article, since a person is a very complex organism, and the mental component is the basis for any life activity. It is she who ensures adequacy in reflecting reality, controlling all types of human activities.
Activity level
The fact that the processes of the human psyche proceed unevenly, with different intensity and speed, is shown by the very first tables on general psychology. Mental processes depend entirely on the state of the individual and external influences on it. What's happened mental condition? Roughly speaking, this is the relative stability of the level of mental activity, which manifests itself in decreased or increased activity. A person can experience a wide variety of conditions. Anyone can remember that sometimes physical and mental work seemed easy and was productive, and at other times the same actions required a lot of work and still did not achieve the desired effect.
Depending on the state of the individual, the characteristics of mental processes also change; the table clearly shows this. The nature of the processes occurring in the psyche is reflexive; they arise and change depending on physiological factors, the environment, the progress of work, even on verbal influences (from praise and blame, the state of the individual clearly acquires new qualities). The comparison table breaks down the mental cognitive processes of an individual point by point. It contains the most studied factors of such changes. For example, the level of attention can fluctuate from concentration to absent-mindedness, characterizing the general mental state, and emotional moods change especially clearly general background all characteristics - from sadness or irritability to cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Especially a lot of research concerns the main creative state of the individual - inspiration.
Personality traits
Mental - stable formations, the highest regulators of activity, which determine the level of the state in the quality and quantity of its components, which is observed in behavior and activity typical of a particular individual. A comparative table of mental cognitive processes connects each gradually formed property of the psyche with the result of practical and reflective activity. The variety of such properties is quite difficult to classify, even in accordance with the basics of all already grouped mental processes.
However, the intellectual, that is, cognitive, volitional and emotional activities of the individual have been studied quite deeply and considered in many complex interactions of their synthesis. Thus, the table shows a variety of mental processes. The properties, functions and role of these components in human life will be considered by us within the framework of this material. Of the cognitive functions, for example, it is worth noting observation and a flexible mind; volitional functions include persistence and determination, and emotional functions include sensitivity and passion. The properties and functions of mental processes differ, but they all play important role in our daily life.
Synthesis
The properties of the human psyche do not exist separately; they act in synthesis, forming complex structural complexes. There is a classification of manifestations of the unconscious according to mental processes. A table of such states is presented below.
This includes following processes, synthesizing with each other:
- Life position: needs, interests, beliefs, ideals, personality activity and selectivity.
- Temperament - natural properties personality: balance, mobility, tone, other behavioral characteristics, everything that characterizes the dynamics of behavior.
- Capabilities: the whole system intellectual, volitional, emotional properties of the individual, which can determine creative possibilities.
- Character is a system of behavior and relationships.
Interconnected neuropsychic acts in their stable and purposeful totality have a certain scheme for transforming activity to obtain a certain result. These are the mental processes characteristic of each individual, which are of primary value for study. For example, memory as a mental process requires memorizing information; this is its need - conscious and unconscious. Here, the input to the process will be precisely this requirement as a property, and the output or final result will be the information remaining in memory.
Psychic phenomena
The most common mental processes were listed above, but let's look at these lists in more detail. They vary greatly among different authors. Common and noted by all are attention, emotions, memory, will, thinking, perception, speech. In the category of mental phenomena, they are accessible to any direct and unqualified observation.
Most often, what is interesting is not even the observed process itself, but its deviations from the norm, that is, its characteristics. Here, the usual table of features of mental processes usually helps students understand the classification. Children of all categories are studied especially carefully, but even their cognitive processes can be quite easily distinguished from emotional or volitional ones.
Personality Features
People are endowed with completely different capabilities: one is absent-minded, and the other is attentive, this one perfectly remembers faces, and the other only remembers melodies. In addition, behavior is characterized by any mental phenomenon and the degree of balance: some will be delighted by the surprise, some will be surprised, and some will be left indifferent. People treat each other differently: some love those around them, while others find humanity disgusting. There are people who are persistent, even stubborn in achieving their goals, and also those who do not care about anything - they always remain apathetic and lethargic.
Attitude to science
Russian psychology divides everything into three types: properties, states and processes. The differences between them are not so great and are temporary. The processes usually take place quickly, but the properties are more stable and long-lasting. Modern psychologists believe that through the interconnectedness of mental processes, the psyche itself is formed, which can be divided into components only very conditionally, since there is no theoretical justification for this study. Nevertheless, not only major phenomena of the psyche, but also basic mental processes have been quite widely identified and studied. comparison table for which there is far from a singular number.
But since psychology has become a science, scientists are developing methods for its knowledge, where the main postulate is an integrative approach to the human psyche, and all classifications in the tables are of propaedeutic and pedagogical value. Similar processes occur in society. Just as in the psyche of an individual, they are extremely interconnected in society: children study, parents raise them, work, athletes train, alcoholics drink, the police catch criminals, and so on. No matter how parallel these processes may seem, sooner or later they all intersect with each other in some way.
Will and emotions
Throughout his life, a person reproduces his existing skills, knowledge, and abilities, trying to connect various forms of behavior with his existing emotional state. In this way, the actualization of connections between various mental processes is built, their transition from latent to active form is carried out. Among emotional states the most striking thing is affect. This is a stormy, rapidly flowing emotion of enormous power, which looks like an explosion, therefore it is uncontrollable by consciousness and is often pathological.
But the process that concentrates consciousness on a real or ideal object is attention. But it is not emotional. A special ability regulates and self-determines its own activities. This is will. All mental processes can be subordinated to it. Its main properties and functions are the precise choice of goals and motives, the regulation of incentives to certain actions, even if there is a lack of motivation, the organization of those mental processes that are able to fit into the system of adequately performed activities, the mobilization of mental and physical capabilities, if you need to overcome obstacles on the way to your goal.
Cognition and Intelligence
The tools for adequately reflecting and projecting the world surrounding a person are representation and imagination. They are closely related to nonspecific structures brain at the cortical level and allow you to build dynamic characteristics maturing mental processes. These are high-speed and quantitative indicators certain actions and their implementation. The state in which the individual’s psyche is located can be different, hence the high variability of performance results.
Speech is in the closest connection with thinking, approximately as closely as sensations and perceptions - one follows from the other. These cognitive processes of the psyche are characteristic of any activity, since it is they who ensure its effectiveness. With the help of basic cognitive processes, a person can set necessary goals in advance, make plans, fill upcoming activities with content, predict results and manipulate them as work progresses. The table presented in the article demonstrates mental cognitive processes and their characteristics as intellectual.
conclusions
The psychological process is most simply explained by a person's ability to remember, think and anticipate. Most often this concept is associated with the acquisition of knowledge. Cognitive mental processes are always creative and active in nature, not so much reflecting the world, how transformative it is. There are two ways of cognition - specific and nonspecific. The first uses sensory and rational processes - these are sensations, perception and thinking, in the latter they share concept, judgment and inference.
Universal, or nonspecific, mental processes are memory, will, imagination, attention. They operate in an end-to-end manner, providing connections throughout the entire cognitive process, and it is on them that all behavioral processes that are in synthesis depend. This supports the cognitive activity and practical objective activity of the individual, who receives not only individuality, but also originality and uniqueness.