Study of psychophysiological factors of speech development of a child in normal and underdeveloped conditions.

The main significance of speech in the mental development of a child is that it frees him from being bound by the situation, momentary events and opens up the opportunity to act not only with things, but also with their substitutes - signs embodied in words; expands the time perspective of the baby’s life, allowing him to look into the past and future.

Speech helps the child free himself from “naturalness” in relation to the objective world: it begins to appear to him as a world of objects of human culture. Speech allows the baby to get to know him not only through personal experience, but also through words. Through verbal communication with adults, the child learns about what he himself did not directly perceive.

Timely development of speech ensures that the child deepens and expands mutual understanding with both relatives and strangers. Speech expands the boundaries of a child’s social existence. Through a new attitude towards an adult not only as a source of warmth and care, but also as a model, a bearer of human culture, he moves out of the narrow framework of exclusively individual connections into the wider world of human relationships.

Mastering speech allows a child to overcome the limitations of situational communication and move from purely practical cooperation with adults to “theoretical” cooperation - non-situational-cognitive communication.

The appearance of speech rearranges mental processes and activities.

It changes the nature of the child’s perception of the environment: it becomes independent of the external positions of the object, of the method of its presentation. At this age, children recognize and name images of objects, people, animals in drawings, photographs, and films.

The influence of speech on the development of a child’s thinking is invaluable. At first, the baby does not know how to think using words without relying on a visual situation. Words only accompany an action or state its result (for example, seeing a fallen doll, a child says: “Lala fell”). In the third year of life, his speech is increasingly freed from the dictates of the visual situation. With the help of speech, he makes generalizations, draws conclusions, and begins to reason. Now the baby can not only discuss specific actions with objects or what he sees in front of him, but also talk about his experiences, remember episodes from his life, and plan future events.

Gradually, speech becomes the basis for the development of voluntary behavior and begins to perform a planning function.

For example, a child tells his mother that he is going to build a garage for a car, or tells a doll about what they will do: “Now I’ll make you soup, then we’ll eat.”

In many situations, the word becomes a means of controlling and managing behavior. For example, a two-year-old child, going to carry out an order for an adult, repeats to himself: “I’m going, I have to go.” In another situation, hardly moving a loaded toy car, he tensely says: “Drive, drive, Kolya.”

During this same period, the child begins to accompany his actions with words of an evaluative nature, imitating an adult. For example, when assembling a pyramid, after each stringing of a ring, he says to himself: “so... so... so” or “not like that...”

However, at an early age the regulatory function of speech is not yet sufficiently developed. It can be difficult for a child to switch from an interesting activity, to keep the assigned task, fulfilling an adult’s instructions or realizing his own plan.

Speech initially arises and develops as a means of communication with adults. In the future, it becomes a means of thinking and mastering one’s behavior.

The conditions for its occurrence in a child are the establishment of emotional contact with an adult, saturation with audible speech and the organization of cooperation.

In its development, speech goes through several stages.

The first is preparatory, or preverbal, when the child understands the speech of adults, but does not yet know how to speak.

The second is transitional, or the stage of speech emergence. Characteristic feature it is the appearance of autonomous children's speech. Children's first words have a number of features: they reflect situational characteristics of objects, do not have a constant meaning, and have a special sound composition. I

The third is the stage of active speech, when real words appear, intensive development of the grammatical structure of the language occurs, and the lexicon.

Questions and tasks 1.

What conditions are necessary for a child to develop active speech? 2.

Describe the stages of speech development in ontogenesis. 3.

Name the main signs of autonomous child speech. 4.

What is a “communication task”? 5.

Indicate the main directions of influence of speech on the mental development of a child.

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Cortical speech centers located in the dominant hemisphere take part in speech production; motor, kinetic, auditory and visual areas, afferent and efferent pathways that relate to analyzers (hearing, vision and sensitivity) also participate in speech production.

Speech centers were discovered 100 years ago and are called Brocca and Wernicke centers.

Brocca Center

Brocca's center belongs to the motor centers of speech. They are located in the lower part of the third frontal gyrus of the left hemisphere of the brain. The neurons of this center control the muscles involved in articulation. When the neurons of this center are damaged, a person develops motor aphasia, which manifests itself in the form of “telegraphic speech” (speech becomes difficult, the person speaks in short phrases, using a minimum of nouns, verbs, adjectives)

Wernicke Center

Wernicke's center is a sensory center. It is located in the posterior part of the first gyrus of the left hemisphere and is located in close proximity to the auditory speech center. When the neurons of Wernicke's center are damaged, sensory aphasia occurs (speech understanding is impaired, while the ability to speak fluently and distortedly is preserved.)

Speech perception

When exposed to the sound of speech, a nerve impulse is formed in the receptor cells of the cochlea of ​​the inner ear, which enters the nuclei (--), then into the primary field of the cerebral cortex. Next, the nerve impulse enters Wernicke's center, where speech is comprehended. The process of understanding speech is associated with the decoding in this center of incoming information in the form of an acoustic or optical stimulus.

Speech playback

An electrical impulse (nervous) from Brocca's center enters the motor cortex of the brain, where the muscles of the face, jaw, tongue, palate, pharynx, etc. are controlled. Thanks to this, certain sounds are produced and the timbre of the voice changes.

Speech development

Speech is formed on the basis of sensory mechanisms of attention and the emotional sphere in the process of communication with adults. Speech development is a multi-stage process. A child is born with a set of certain morphological structures in the cerebral cortex, which ensure the formation of speech during the first three years of life.

The process of speech development consists of 3 periods:

Preparatory.

Period of speech understanding.

The period of speech acquisition.

For the development of speech, the central nervous system must be exposed to several visual, auditory, and kinetic stimuli. The child learns normal articulation based on the auditory perception of the speech of the people around him.

Preparation period

This period begins from 2 months of the child’s life. It is based on the innate ability to pronounce sounds (Walking, babbling. These sounds are characteristic of all peoples of the world)

During the first months of life, a cry for a child takes on a second signal meaning, as it evokes a response from adults. Subsequently, on the basis of the pronounced sounds, specific sounds of the speech center are formed.

Sensory speech is formed at 7-8 months, and motor speech at 10-12 months.

Speech understanding period

It is formed in the second year of a child’s life. Speech is formed through imitation of the speech of an adult.

After 2 years of life, a leap occurs in the development of active speech. (The child begins to put individual words into phrases) The plural appears in speech.

At 2 years old, a child’s vocabulary is 300 words.

Period of phrasal speech

It is formed after 3 years of life. During this period, the child learns the first grammatical forms.

By the age of 4, the child uses conjunctions and pronouns in his speech. The child is characterized by the word “creativity” (he forms new ones from individual words)

At 4-5 years old, children pronounce long phrases. Asks why. ("why" period). During the period of phrasal speech, the child masters algorithms native language.

The critical periods in the development of the period are 3 and 7 years. Puberty(?) period Girls are 11-15 years old, boys are 13-17 years old.

Plasticity of speech function in childhood

Brain plasticity in children can provide restoration of lost speech function (as a result of injury or disease). Moving the speech center from the left hemisphere to the right is possible up to the age of 10 years.

The process of speech development in a child is the process of mastering his native language, its vocabulary and grammatical structure. Using the richness of the vocabulary of the native language, using its grammar to express one’s knowledge, one’s thoughts, etc., is the essence of speech development in children.<...>

In the process of mastering vocabulary, this building material of language, and its grammatical structure, the child’s knowledge of reality occurs, since language is the most important condition for the transition from living contemplation to abstract thinking in the process of man’s reflection of reality. Without language, a person cannot go beyond the boundaries of the individual, concrete; he cannot analyze and generalize the phenomena of reality, plan his activities and foresee their results.<...>

It is the unity of language and thinking that determines the existence and possibility of development of abstract thinking.<...>

The development of a child occurs mainly in the process of his education and upbringing. In live, constant communication with other people, learning the surrounding material reality, the child masters his native language. “Practice helps him to see this or that phenomenon of concrete reality behind each word. Through language, the child receives ready-made knowledge of facts, masters concepts, because each concept is expressed in a word. Through language, he assimilates the results cognitive activity many generations of people.

The word of an adult greets a child from the first day of his birth. The word helps the child to understand the surrounding material reality, to master the knowledge accumulated by humanity; it promotes development logical thinking, thanks to which the growing child gradually penetrates into the essence of perceived phenomena.

All the moral, ethical and aesthetic concepts that a child must learn are deposited in the language.

The generalizing nature of the word makes people see the general in a single specific object, that is, what is essential for a whole group of homogeneous objects. A familiar word captures precisely this general, and therefore the main thing in the subject, and omits its individual and special.

Therefore, the word, being a “signal of signals,” acquires that “multiple character” that ensures categorical perception, generalization of ideas and abstract thinking. This peculiar character of the word as a specific form of reflection of an object through its designation in language, radically restructures all relationships of a person with the environment.<...>

Special meaning for cognitive activity is the inclusion of speech in the process of sensation and perception. A specific stimulus that directly affects the infant’s analyzer is the first signal of reality, and even then only when it is associated with biologically useful or harmful reinforcement or itself has a positive or negative vital significance for the organism.

Subsequently, the word mastered by the child, denoting a perceived object, sign or connection, becomes a generalized signal of such stimuli that no longer have any biological meaning for the child. Thus, the word takes a person’s relationship with the reality around him out of the sphere of biologically determined adaptive reactions typical of an animal, ensuring a higher balance with the environment. Of course, direct, sensory knowledge of reality continues to play a significant role in human activity. However higher processes analysis of what is perceived, all operations of comparison and generalization of similar things are ensured by the inclusion of speech in the process of perception.<...>

<...>At different stages of child development, the relationship between the sensory and verbal is constantly changing. They depend: 1) on the child’s direct life experience, i.e., first of all, on the degree of his knowledge of each specific object, fact, which is indicated by the word; 2) on the degree of mastery of the word, which at first does not yet have a generalized meaning for the child, but is only the “name” of one specific object; 3) from the developed ability to correlate sensory perceived content with its verbal designation, that is, to express what is perceived in language. At different stages of development of understanding, comprehending what the eye sees, the hand touches or the ear hears, in different ways

The relationships between the sensory and the logical, the perceived and the designated are revealed.<...>

Experimental studies <...>physiologists Krasnogorsky, Shchelovanova, Kasatkin, Koltsova and others convincingly show that long before the expiration of the first year of life, the entire sensory apparatus of the infant functions both as a receptor and as an analyzer. The child has access to subtle differentiation of stimuli from the external world. Already a 4-month-old baby can develop differentiation of the red color, and a one-year-old child can develop differentiation of other primary colors; in the second half of the year, the child distinguishes the voices of people close to him and reacts differently to them. At the end of the year, the child correctly responds to the adult’s suggestions: “Give me a pen!”, “Where is the leg?”, “Where is the spoon?” etc., i.e. it reveals subtle phonemic differentiation. The same is observed in the field of other analyzers. By the age of one year, a reflex of each of them can be developed.

Rosengart-Pupko's data show that children at the beginning of the second year of life unmistakably recognize the toy they just held in their hands among other, very similar objects. Thus, a child aged 1 year 3 months finds his doll with lilac shoes among other dolls with pink shoes. Or at the age of 1 year 5 months, the child refused to take the rattle only because it was a darker color than the one he had previously held, etc.

“For an adult and for a speaking child, an essential condition for the development of discriminative and absolute sensitivity is the mastery of language. The inclusion of a word, i.e., mastery of the “signal of signals,” radically rebuilds all the relationships of a growing and developing child with the environment, changes, “humanizes” the activity of analyzers.

The role of the word in the dynamics of the sensation process is reflected in the following.

1. The quality of an object named by the word, its shade or property, perceived by our senses, stands out in the object with which it has hitherto been merged. The words “red nesting doll”, “blue” ball, “rough” pine bark or “smooth” birch, “piercing” cry or “brilliant” stream, “fragrant” smell or “bitter” taste, denoting the attribute of an object, make it an object of knowledge . The resulting irritation becomes knowledge. Thanks to the word, the child not only sees red, blue or green colors, but also knows them as an objectively existing fact of reality. Later, in the process of studying at school, he learns the reason for this fact, and learns the subjective nature of the image of this really existing fact received by each person. But already for a preschooler, reflecting a color named by a word does not require its repeated combination with unconditional reinforcement. In a word that exists in a language, it is already fixed specific value, therefore, the designated quality of an object, including one that is completely neutral for the child’s vital interests, transforms it from an irritant into knowledge of an objectively existing fact of reality. Now the word signals this fact.

The inclusion of a word that replaces and signals all stimuli radically rebuilds the entire system of old and newly formed connections.

2. These connections are formed “on the spot” and are signaled by those stimuli that have never been in the child’s experience before.* The previously developed connection of a word (for example, “red”) with a certain color sensation allows you to see the same color in any new stimulus* Specificity words as a signal “allowing for distraction and generalization” ensures “closing connections with a stimulus that was not previously in a person’s experience. Thus, words, closing new connections, allow the child to see familiar qualities in new, never before encountered objects. Children hear the fragrant smell of fresh hay, admire orange The sky at sunset is determined by the velvety surface of a rose petal, a prickly twig of rosehip or sticky soft snow. The activities of analyzers are becoming more and more differentiated.

The ability not only to distinguish, but also to know and recognize the qualities of objects, shades of colors, smells, surfaces, temperature, etc., as signs of various things, provides a new character for the child’s orientation in the environment. This fact reveals broad pedagogical prospects.

Skillfully working on the development of children's distinctive sensitivity, the teacher makes extensive use of the rich possibilities of decomposing the whole into parts, provided by the very structure and function of the child's analyzers and their interaction. Thus, the teacher leads children to an increasingly deeper and more diverse knowledge of reality.<...>

Thus, knowledge of the word sharpens sensory perception. The world of colors, sounds, smells and other sensations seems to be revealed to the child in all its endless diversity. Thus, each object is perceived in the diversity of its characteristics. The child’s eye, which has developed in the process of such exercises, sees the smallest shades of colors and shapes, the ear begins to hear the subtlest shades of the human voice, music and distinguish singing by voices. different birds. By comparing and contrasting perceived objects according to their characteristics, children themselves discover the differences and similarities between them. “It’s still a little strong (kidney).” “Look, this leaf is green, completely green, but this one is not like that, but a little lighter.” “The sky was just blue, completely blue, but now it’s as if it’s transparent.” The educator gives new words to these discovered qualities and thereby ensures an even more subtle and accurate comparison operation, i.e., further growth of differentiation. “This leaf is “dark green, and this one is light green”, “this is a strong, hard bud”, “these are elastic twigs, this one is flexible, this one is more fragile; This is a sour apple, and this is sweet and sour...”, etc.

Thus, in play and activities, the child is forced to exercise his analytical activity, which is formed as human distinctive sensitivity to color shades, sounds and smells.

In this way, knowledge of the qualities of objects in the surrounding reality is enriched and the child’s receptivity to them is sharpened.

3. Thanks to the word, the resulting irritations become signs of things, the distinction of which constitutes a distinctive feature of the human reflection of reality.<...>

Consequently, the inclusion of a word ensures not only the formation of connections of a different nature, but also rearranges the operation of the entire closure mechanism.

4. Receiving new names for qualities, the child begins not only to recognize what is known in objects familiar to him, but to highlight unfamiliar shades in new and known things. Now, having met a new shade of color, baby

asks: “What color is this?”, “What is the name of this smell?” - and where he does not receive an answer, he comes up with a name himself: “This is the smell of raspberries” (from wild raspberries). “This apple is ruddy in color,” etc.

To understand the development of sensitivity, what is important for us now is not what the child names the new quality of the object. His cognitive attitude to the subject, to the identification of a number of features in it, is significantly formed. The child already sees and distinguishes them without any preliminary reinforcement; he is waiting for their verbal designation, that is, he not only distinguishes, but also wants to know.

This is revealed in the child's developing powers of observation. He now looks differently at the world around him (for example, at nature), sees something different in it, that is, he moves to a new level of reflection of reality. Children's well-trained observation skills, i.e., subtle discrimination of reality signals, have enormous practical significance. It provides the best orientation in the environment that any person needs in various life circumstances of his work and struggle.

5. A word acquired by a child, denoting one or another characteristic, leads not only to an increase in his distinctive sensitivity to colors, smells, sounds, but also to the development of a generalized reflection of homogeneous qualities.<...>

When a child encounters a new object or its quality and perceives the totality of those signs that in his experience are already indicated by a word familiar to him, he easily recognizes this new quality and the entire object in the stimulus acting on him. The connection is completed “on the spot”, thanks to the generalized nature of the word as a signal. This ensures the categorical nature of sensations.

Thus, knowing the color red as a signal prohibiting crossing the street, children, like adults, react the same way to any red color, regardless of its shade in a lantern lit at an intersection. The child uses red to indicate the color of the poppy and the flag, the colored pencil and the lingonberry. The recognized designation of a “sweet and sour” apple is also used to designate other tastes that are similar, homogeneous, close, but not identical to the one with which this designation was first associated. The word "white" means various colors and the lightness of such objects as paper, linen, a white-painted door, etc.

Thus, mastery of a word leads, on the one hand, to the identification of a designated feature in an object and its difference from all others and, on the other hand, to the unification and generalization of similar, homogeneous features into some group. Mastery of a word denoting the quality of an object, requiring an elementary process of discrimination, necessarily leads to the development of comparison. It transfers the process of sensation to the second stage of analysis, ensuring the development of ever more subtle discriminating sensitivity.<...>

Formal training of children to identify subtle differences between shades of colors or noises, not related to any content and not enshrined in words, does not provide the child with genuine knowledge of the reality around him and does not contribute to his development. Only in everyday practical activities, in games, activities, etc., do children learn to distinguish colors and their shades, selecting their combinations, and grasp their harmony.<...>

Widely using comparison methods in order to find similar and different, asking children to select objects based on contrast or decreasing characteristics and accompanying verbal designation of the similar, identical and distinctive quality of an object, the teacher a) develops the absolute and distinctive sensitivity of children; b) sharpens their powers of observation; c) deepens knowledge about objects and phenomena of the surrounding world; d) develops in children such mental operations as analysis, synthesis, comparison, discrimination, and accustoms them to mental work.

Thus, the possibility of primary analysis available to a newborn baby, provided by the structure of his sensory apparatus, turns under conditions of systematic exercise (i.e., training and education) into the most complex ability to see, hear, and touch the infinitely diverse qualities of objects in the surrounding reality. The grouping of these reflected qualities of objects according to their characteristics, properties, strength or brightness forms the basis of the emerging system of human knowledge about the qualities and properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.

Older children and adults notice the smallest changes occurring in the objects and phenomena of the real world they perceive, and they cannot always indicate these changes with the appropriate name or word. But this subtle differentiation, ensured by the very structure of the analyzer, became possible thanks to the systematic exercise of the child in discriminatory activity with the inclusion of words. It changed the operation of the analyzer itself. Only at the level of the second signaling system does a person acquire new method reality analysis - comparison method.

Through comparison, an increasingly subtle and in-depth analysis of certain qualities of objects or phenomena is achieved.<...>

Thus, a necessary condition for the development of sensations, including vision, is, firstly, the translation of the stimulus into an object of cognition, secondly, the identification of the main distinctive features in different but homogeneous objects, thirdly, the finding of similarities and differences between homogeneous stimuli and, fourthly, a new discrimination of complex and subtle qualitative shades that constantly exist in the surrounding reality and create in their totality a more or less significant characteristic of the whole object.

Obviously, the development of sensations cannot be achieved through the exercise of “pure contemplation.” The inclusion of the second signaling system and thereby restructuring the entire activity of the first is the law of the formation of the child’s sensory experience and the development of his distinctive sensuality. It follows that the development of sensations is impossible without the participation of words and speech.

As the child accumulates and enriches his life experience, his differentiation becomes more and more subtle, and the categories of perceived objects and their qualities become more and more enriched. By the time a seven-year-old child enters school, he is able to select small objects (for example, pebbles, shells) based on subtle common features, distinguish leaves and flowers by the slightest shades of color and lightness, distinguish musical phrases, tones, and find commonality in similar musical works.

Practical experience, the varied activities of the child among the people around him and communicating with each other are, in the true sense of the word, a school for his analytical activity. Without words, without speech, the transition to the higher stages of analysis and synthesis is impossible.

This is the expression of the interaction of the first and second signaling systems at the level of the sensory stage of cognition - sensations.<...>

Research results show that the meaning of a word denoting an object or any of its features (shape, color, size, position in space) is crucial for its identification in a perceived object. The child sees a “cylinder” or “circle,” that is, he identifies a shape in objects (a stove, a wheel) when he knows the word that denotes it. Of course, a child and a non-speaking person sees a round ball and distinguishes it from a cube, but knowledge of a form abstracted from the content (ball, circle, cylinder, cube) is possible only when it is designated by a word. Then the recognized form is “seen,” that is, abstracted, in any object. A child of five or six years of age finds with interest the shape of a cylinder in the stove; in the lampshade he sees a ball, and in the funnel he sees “a cone and a small cylinder.”

When the form is not indicated by a word, it is merged with the object and is not distinguished even by school-age children. In this case, any random sign becomes significant, which is what the child is guided by in the perception of objects.

Studying the relationships that exist between perception and speech, G. L. Rosengart-Pupko experimentally showed how differently the perception of the same objects occurs in a child depending on his speech proficiency. Children at the beginning of the 2nd year, who do not yet speak speech, easily see the difference between two similar objects, even when this difference is extremely insignificant. A child distinguishes a fungus in his hands with white spots on its cap from the same fungus with a plain cap, or recognizes its motley celluloid duck among the same ducks, but of a lighter or darker shade. At this stage we are dealing with elementary discrimination based on the very first differentiation. This discrimination operation is available to a child who does not speak speech.

Of course, to perform a comparison on a task, it is already necessary to understand the verbally expressed instructions: “give the same” or “find the same.” However, the highest level of this operation - comparison based on analysis and highlighting the essential in an object - does not exist outside of speech. This is what the research data of G. L. Rosengart-Pupko suggests.

G.L. Rosengart-Pupko shows in a number of his experiments that, when choosing and distinguishing a familiar toy from unfamiliar ones, a child who does not speak speech cannot complete this task as an voluntary operation until the end of the second year. We might add that the various attributes of objects do not become for the child knowledge of the objectively inherent quality of the object. The choice and discrimination that turned out to be accessible to the baby speak only of the possibility of fine differentiation of color shades on the basis of the first signal system.

Things change radically with mastery of speech. Thanks to “trust in the word,” the child, when naming an object, no longer needs to compare it with others that are similar. He chooses an object no longer looking at the sample, but according to a sentence: “give me a fishing rod,” “give me a bucket,” etc. “The word has replaced visual perception, and the child now does not need to first contemplate a duck or a bucket. Even in the case when an object is not named by adults, but is familiar to the child and is shown to him as a model, it is enough for the child to glance at it to find the same one among other objects.At the same time, older children, without embarrassment, pick up a small wooden one from a large metal bucket, red celluloid fish - flat rubber, to those shown round the clock- standing clock (works by F. S. Rosenfeld).

In this operation, the child not only compares, but also generalizes. Thus, knowing the word “teapot,” a two-year-old child, looking at the yellow teapot shown to him as a sample, unerringly chooses a red teapot as a mate among other objects, among which there is a yellow duck of the same color as the teapot. Having forgotten the name “mortar”, the child chooses an iron as a homogeneous object. However, it is enough for the experimenter to ask “what is this?” for the child to solve the problem correctly, that is, to find the same mortar, albeit of a different color or size.

It is characteristic that for older children the unfamiliar names of a specific object shown to them are not an obstacle to the correct selection of an object that is similar to the presented sample.

Having received a picture of an unfamiliar snail or bat, the child correctly finds homogeneous ones among several pictures shown to him, laid out on the table. Here again the comparison operation comes into play, but it takes place at a different level than in the case of children who chose their doll based on a distinctive feature - lilac shoes or a lighter color.

Here a genuine comparison operation takes place, it takes place at the level of the second signal system, like the original mental operation. The child learned to compare and use comparison to distract from the main features essential to a given subject. "Comparison is ensured by the analysis of the object and only after that by the unification of its similar, homogeneous features. This unification of objects according to similar features is the first synthesis, which must be preceded by the first analysis. This method of mental activity, the method of analysis, was taught to the child by the word, mastering speech! Without knowing the name , For example, " bat"or "snail", a child cannot generalize different images without special exercises. However, this impossibility of generalization does not prevent him from comparing and correctly selecting homogeneous ones.

It is clear that such a choice is sometimes wrong. Children are distracted by the wrong signs that are truly the basis for generalization. Incorrect, i.e., generalization based on unimportant characteristics, also appears in early children’s speech, when in one word, for example, “Lala,” the child denotes a doll, a little girl, and a shiny lid from a soap dish, in which his own face is reflected. By changing some unimportant qualities of an object (size, color), but maintaining the verbal designation, the adult teaches the child to generalize objects based on identifying truly significant features.

Interesting stuff in this regard, M. Lukina gives, showing how one year old child first connects the word “cup” with one of his cups. She is small, red, with white spots. When this cup was removed and another, white cup appeared on the table, the child did not respond to the demand “where is the cup.” Only after several combinations of a familiar word with this white one, and then with different cups, did the child begin to use the generalized designation. To the question “where is the cup?” he began to show any cup - a large white one, a blue one with gold edging, and even a cup unusual shape, in the form of a rhombus.

This is how an elementary generalization of objects occurs based on the abstraction of their essential features. It is ensured by the presence of the word.

At this primary stage of meaningful perception, the unity of the operations of analysis and synthesis is clearly expressed.

Thanks to the generalizing meaning of the word as synthesis, a new object is perceived by the child as familiar. The word by which a thing is named fixes in it those features that are common, and therefore essential, for all similar objects. Thus, the perception of a single thing already becomes categorical. In the display of a single object, in which there is both general and special, and essential and accidental, the child sees precisely the general, and this thing as a concretization of this general.<...>

"In the process of development, the child does not immediately master the word and the construction of a sentence. An audible word at first is for the child only a “name”, the name of an object. Only through accumulation practical experience, accumulation of knowledge, the word acquires the meaning of a multi-comprehensive signal for the child. Thus, the child deepens his knowledge of what is essential in the subject, ensured by more and more perfect analysis and well-founded synthesis.

When a child establishes a connection between a word and many visually perceived objects, which are not identical, he is forced to analyze the object, compare the selected parts, abstract individual ones and generalize the essential ones. Thus, thinking in unity with speech not only “helps” perception, but makes the entire process of perception meaningful.<...>

The identification of an essential feature is the support for a new stage of perception.<...>

A new level of knowledge of the subject is expressed in the questions of children. They ask: “What kind of tree is this?” “This is the Pobeda car, and this is the Moskvich,” the children say, looking at the painting “City” (by artist Barachevskaya). Perception has become meaningful and differentiating. This differentiation, however, is not at all similar to that which underlay the discrimination operation in children at the beginning of the second year of life. It occurs at the level of the second signaling system and is based on the operation of analysis, abstraction and integration. This new quality of perception is ensured not only by the recognized word as a signal, but also by the complication of the entire mechanism of perception achieved through mastering speech.<...>

With the enrichment and expansion of the scope of the concept, the perception of each object in this category changes. Now a child, seeing a saucepan with a ladle, plates, spoons and prepared cups on the table at home, joyfully declares: “Look, all the dishes are there” - and explains: kitchen, dining and tea.

Thus, the word, providing new differentiation, expands and enriches the child’s ideas. He, of course, many times during his 4-5 years saw tea cups, pots and pans, ate from deep and small plates, knows how to distinguish them by appearance, but the name “tea utensils”, “ cookware” or “dinnerware” revealed different and common features in long-familiar objects. These are all dishes, but different. The child's eye highlights those aspects, those features of an object that have hitherto been merged with the object itself. Now they have become identifying marks of a certain category and variety of objects. The child looks for them and focuses on these distinctive features, perceiving each new thing.

This focus on distinctive features, of course, is not limited to one category of objects (dishes), but forms the general ability to search for and highlight common and essential various signs and in other subjects.

A new stage of perception is characterized by a search for distinctive features of a perceived object or an entire situation. Easily recognizing what is drawn in a picture or shown in reality, children strive to more accurately determine the category of the perceived object, relying on those essential specific features that they are already able to identify.<...>

“One of the highest forms of such analytical-synthetic perception is the ability to select a title to a perceived picture or life situation and vice versa: to reveal the entire content of the picture by the title.

However, this highest type of synthesis is based not only on the identification of different and, first of all, essential features for each individual subject, but also on the disclosure of connections both within the subject, and especially interdisciplinary connections.

Analysis of objects in their interrelation is a condition for the perception of the whole situation - a picture, a phenomenon.

In this case, the basis for the perception of the whole situation is not only reflected spatial relationships, but in the latter logical, i.e., deeper dependencies should also be revealed: for example, causal ones (the boy fell into the water because the ice was already thin; the aunt held out hand - she is glad that dad came from the front), target (a boy climbs a tree in order to pick apples), temporary (the girl first got dressed and then went to school), etc. This comprehension of connections is also carried out in the word and leads to a change and clarification of visual perception. The child also notices the expression of fear on the face of a boy running away from a dog, or the kind smile of a grandmother meeting her grandchildren at the station.

The role of the word in revealing connections and relationships between objects and in defining different sides one subject is especially convincingly revealed when studying children's visual perception of space and spatial relationships.

Distinguishing the spatial position of an object and the spatial relationships between objects is accessible to a 4-5 year old child even when the position itself is not highlighted in a word. Children very early, practically acting with objects and among them, become familiar with space. Children can even reproduce the spatial position of an object in a picture (flag, key) and, therefore, distinguish between its “top” and “bottom,” one side and the other.

However, mastering the concept, i.e. abstract knowledge of space as a category objective world, as an objective reality, regardless of the specific environment and situation, it is impossible without speech. The perception of space also reveals various stages along which the child’s cognition develops.

Analysis of the role of language in the sensory and motor perception of space also reveals the genesis of this process in young children.

In a small study by M. Smirnova, attention is drawn to the development and use of spatial notations by children. After listening to the fairy tale “Kolobok” and conveying its content, the children middle group very loosely and often mistakenly indicate the location and relationship of objects.

So, children say that the grandmother put the bun in the window (on) or that the bun jumped from the stove into the bench (on), jumped out the door (behind) and ran away, jumped into the fox’s nose (instead of on the nose). Having tested children’s knowledge of prepositions in relation to differently located objects, M. Smirnova was convinced that children incorrectly designate various spatial relationships and do not indicate many relationships at all, since they do not know the corresponding designations (“between”, “near” or “about”, “ obliquely").

The direct dependence of generalized knowledge of spatial relationships, perceived objects and phenomena on knowledge of words and the different role of speech in the development of spatial perception and representation is convincingly demonstrated by the work of A. E. Kozyreva.

Studying the perception of space in children, the author provides convincing evidence that orientation in space, that is, the child’s reflection of the usual location of an object, is mastered very early.

Thus, a child already at the age of 1 year 6 months is perfectly oriented in the space of his room, a familiar street, or a yard. He precisely turns at the corner of his street, pulls an adult towards his entrance and stops at the door of his apartment. At the same age, the child, having become accustomed to the constant location of familiar objects in the room, notices a change in their spatial arrangement. In search of the suitcase where the hat is, the girl runs to the corner and looks down: there was usually a suitcase under the bed. The child does not notice that he is passing by the suitcase, which is now lying in the middle of the room, on a stool.

Such orientation in space is ensured by the formed temporary connections, primarily on the basis of that muscular feeling, those kinesthetic sensations that were repeated many times and turned out to be associated with the visual perception of the same things in their constant location. Therefore, any change in the spatial arrangement of objects is detected by the child very early, not so much by visual perception, but joint activities motor and visual analyzers.

According to Kozyreva, a child (1 year 8 months) gestures “down” in response to a question about where he was (at the metro station). However, in this case the inclusion of a verbal signal is required. This is the word “where”, which the child associates with the location of an object in space.

B. G. Ananyev drew attention to a similar fact when he saw how a girl in her second year of life, hearing the question: “Where is your blush?” began to look around and look for it around her. Due to the fact that with mastering walking, the child has included movement in his daily routine at the request of adults and constantly hears indications of the direction and location of an object, his orientation in space improves significantly. In practice, he checks the correctness of his perception, in practice he masters the spatial connections and relationships that exist between things.

Thus, speech signals indicating the direction and any location of an object (outside of revealing its connections and relationships with other objects) for a child 1 year 3 months - 1 year 6 months are the words “where”, “there”, “here” or “ there".

Working with children junior group kindergarten A. Kozyreva discovered their good orientation in directions, which were associated with the words: “there”, “there”, “here” and were abundantly accompanied by pointing gestures showing the direction.

The inclusion in the child’s everyday life of such words as “on”, “behind”, “under”, “in front”, etc., denoting the constant relationships of any objects to each other, leads the child very early to the abstraction of these spatial relationships. In this case, the perception of objects in space and their reproduction in drawing, play, constructive activity or speech occurs at the level of the second signaling system, relying on the signals of the first system.

Children not only use the corresponding words - “above”, “below”, “right”, “next”, but these relationships that exist between objects become the support for the synthesis of the entire perceived situation. This fact was proven by A.E. Kozyreva in an experiment with a model of a kindergarten room. A. E. Kozyreva posed the question (developed earlier by F. N. Shemyakin) about the distinction in human perception between “path space” and “map space” or “path map” and “overview map.” Working with children preschool age A. E. Kozyreva comes to the conclusion that the “path map”, i.e. the idea of ​​​​linear space, which the child perceives from a constant and certain point of reference, is mastered by him very early, while a pupil of even the younger group indicates the path (up to home), relying on a number of random signs that are supportive in recognizing the space of the path. “First like this, then turn around, where the big piles are, then the yard, then there’s our door.”

Having received the task of arranging furniture in their group room on a model and showing his usual place at the table, a child of 4 - 4.5 years old, if he understands the task itself, easily completes it.

If we analyze the speech of children, which they use while solving such a problem (this analysis was not part of the researcher’s task at that time), it is easy to see that the support for its solution is the spatial relationships of objects to each other, indicated by the corresponding words. “So, Tanya, placing toy tables, chairs, a bookcase, a piano, he says in a low voice: “there’s a window, and next to it there’s a wardrobe, a round table in the middle, there’s a stove between the windows, there’s a bedside table in the corner, and the bookcase is here in front, and here I’m sitting with Vitya "

A four-year-old child who solved a problem with errors while arranging furniture is limited to general, undifferentiated designations of space. He says: “here” and “there” or “more”, “there is a table here”, “there are also chairs here”.<...>“Where is the piano? We also need to put a wardrobe here, and a bookcase here.” These general designations “here”, “there”, “here”, “still” indicate that spatial relations are included in the entire situation perceived by the child and constitute one of its unidentified features, but do not serve as a basis for analysis in the perception of the whole.

That's not what we see in children's work. senior group kindergarten. For them, spatial connections are objectified in the words “about”, “next to”, “between”, “right”, “left”, and thanks to this, the entire solution to the problem noticeably changes its character. While continuing to be a solution to a specific problem, it occurs at the level of abstraction and generalization of the essential: in this case, spatial connections and relationships that exist between objects.

However, five- and six-year-old children have not yet mastered these spatial relationships enough to be able to mentally change them within the same concept - “next to”, “near”, “opposite”, etc. So, when rotating the layout by 1800, when the children were forced to move the reference point away from themselves, i.e. from the usual location just to the opposite side, the vast majority of the children solved the problem with errors. This task required operating with relationships, abstracted from the usual relationships of objects and at the same time conditioned by them. It turned out to be too much for a small child.

As the results of the work of F.N. Shemyakin show, the “overview map” turns out to be a difficult task for children in the older group. The author rightly makes her decision dependent on her mastery of words. Obviously, the solution to this problem, based on transferring the reference point from a usual place to another, requires not only mastery of the concepts of spatial relations and, above all, such as “left”, “right”, but also the developed ability to rearrange the visual representation when the point changes reference, maintaining the previous spatial relationships of objects to each other. If the table is to the right of the stove at the usual reference point, then maintaining this relationship “to the right” with the reference point moved to 1800 requires restructuring the entire visual image of both objects, but preserving their relationships with each other. This requires a new, higher level of abstraction of spatial relationships, allowing new uniform their specification.

Thus, in the perception of space, complex relationships of analysis and synthesis, sensory and logical, are revealed.

Through the designation of perceived spatial connections, those logical relationships that are expressed by these spatial connections are also revealed: a girl runs behind a running boy, she catches up with him. A child stands next to a seated man. “He approached dad.” The swimmer is leaning over the water - “he is about to jump into the water,” etc. Of course, for such an understanding of the whole, it is necessary not only to reveal the spatial position of objects and their relationships. Appearance objects, costume and facial expressions of the people depicted - everything becomes essential for understanding the whole. But among all the signs of connection, clearly depicted, i.e. spatial (in plot paintings) are of decisive importance. They allow you to see objects and human figures not in static conditions, but in dynamics, to see the actions of people and animals and to comprehend them.

Analysis of connections leads to a high level of synthesis. It finds its highest expression in the title of the painting. The title framed in the speech allows us to return to the picture again: peering at the visual image, see in it those little things, shades, details that receive a certain meaning only in the disclosure of the whole.

Thus, the reflection of the spatial position of an object and its relationship to other images is not limited to the knowledge of the basic connections recorded in words: below, above, right, next to, left, etc. Guided by the knowledge of these spatial relationships, the child’s eye begins to see the object in the picture in all its various spatial positions and relationships, which become the basis for understanding the entire content of the picture, which we call the “logic of spatial relationships.”

Thus, the true dialectic of the relationship between sensory contemplation and comprehension in the child’s developing perception of reality is revealed to us. To highlight an object against the background of “unsteady space”, you need to see its outline, its figure. Action with an object, its movement, and especially the word denoting the object, distinguishes it from other objects.

In order to see the position of the depicted objects and thereby reveal the connections between them, you need a word that denotes these connections and thereby makes them the subject of knowledge. Perceived connections are objectified.

This new stage of analysis is the support for the final synthesis, which is again expressed in a word - a title: a title that summarizes the entire content of the perceived picture.

Thus, at different levels of perception, the analytical and synthetic activity of human thinking is revealed in different ways, restructuring the entire process of perception. A deep and well-founded analysis ensures a correct, accurate synthesis. Expressed in words, it also changes its basis, “tuning” sensual contemplation itself. In the process of development of perception, complex dialectical relationships between part and whole, sensory and logical, individual and general are revealed in a unique way.<...>

The culture of perception cultivated in children during their education also forms in them a certain approach to viewing a picture. This means that the teacher, by consistently selecting pictures, skillfully posing questions and naming the highlighted parts, features, connections depicted in the picture, organizes the very process of the child’s cognition of what is depicted. The teacher uses his questions as a means of systematic analysis. The subject of children's perception becomes individual parts that are necessary and essential for understanding the whole. The teacher asks not only about objects, but also about their characteristics and connections. This way of analyzing a picture not only leads to a meaningful perception of this particular visual aid, - it enriches children with the ability to look for and see the main parts in other paintings and in nature. It teaches children a meaningful perception of reality.

Without speech, without words, visibility is mute. It delays children’s knowledge at the level of the concrete and special, not allowing them to move on to the abstract, and therefore to reveal the essential. It is in the word denoting sensually perceived objects that the contradictions that exist in the very nature of perception are resolved. The word reflects the general in the particular, the abstract in the concrete, the categorical in the individual, the essential in the accidental.

This means that speech in perception is necessary not so much for directing attention, explaining and indicating. A word denoting a concept, i.e., the essence of an object, by its very nature reveals the essential in the presented image and makes it meaningful.<...>

The name of the perceived object leads to its primary analysis and makes its comparison with other objects the most reasonable, persistent and broad. The title of a whole perceived situation or picture is based on an analysis of the various relationships that exist between the parts of the whole, and leads to a different perception of this whole.

The different depth of analysis is also expressed in the different structure of children’s speech. If the primary division of the whole is usually expressed in the naming of individual objects by children, that is, in the pronunciation of individual words and short two- and three-word sentences, then the new stage of analytical-synthetic perception is expressed in expanded complex sentences"In them, the child designates perceived objects in their connections and relationships, more and more correctly reflecting the reality around him. The process of education and training, carried out through language, determines the gradual formation of this adequate reflection of reality and the development of the child’s cognitive abilities.

Children's and general psychology/Ed. B. G. Ananyeva. - M., 1954. - P. 3 - 30.

(English perception of oral speech) is one of the highest mental functions of a person. V. u. R. - the internal mental side of this type of speech activity as listening (listening). Being “mediated in its structure and social in its genesis” (A. R. Luria), V. at. R. is semantic, because “normally includes the act of understanding, comprehension” (S. L. Rubinstein).

Speech perception is a heterogeneous process in which (from a genetic and functional point of view) m. the levels of discrimination and recognition are highlighted (N.I. Zhinkin). From view the nature of the “processing” of the speech signal, sensory, perceptual and semantic levels of perception are distinguished. So, in the process of V. at. R. at the sensory level, acoustic analysis and selection of sounds in the word are carried out, which are recognized at the perceptual level of perception. At the semantic level, the meaning of the sentence and the entire message as a whole is established.

From view the formation of the process of semantic perception itself, it may. successive (expanded) and simultaneous (simultaneous). Thus, during the formation of listening as a type speech activity in the native language and then during learning in a foreign language, perception is characterized by succession, whereas when these types of speech activity are formed, perception is simultaneous.

V. u. R. involves the process of probabilistic forecasting. The listener perceives a speech message starting with an assumption about the input signal. Speech perception can be characterized by different depths and levels of prediction, both the course of thought development and the appearance of the most probable word for a given context.

The semantic perception of a speech message is determined by a number of factors, and above all, involvement in a person’s active activity. Determined by the language system, V. at. R. also depends on the nature of the speech message itself (logical and semantic structure of speech, length and depth of phrases, communicative richness of speech, etc.).

V. u. R. is also determined by the individual personal characteristics of the listener or reader: the characteristics of their thinking (for example, flexibility, productivity), memory (for example, its volume, type), personality orientation, the nature of attitudes, etc.

46. ​​Memory

This is a general designation for a complex of cognitive abilities and higher mental functions for the accumulation, preservation and reproduction of knowledge and skills. Memory in different forms and species is inherent in all higher animals. The most developed level of memory is characteristic of humans.

Hermann Ebbinghaus is considered a pioneer in the study of human memory, who conducted experiments on himself (the main technique was memorizing meaningless lists of words or syllables) Psychological theories of memory. Associationist, gestational-psychological, behavioristic and active theories of memory have become widespread. One of the first psychological theories memory, which has not yet lost its scientific significance, was the associationist theory. The starting point for it was the concept of association, which means connection, connection. The mechanism of association consists in establishing a connection between impressions that simultaneously arise in consciousness and its reproduction by the individual. The basic principles of creating associations between objects are: the coincidence of their influence in space and time, similarity, contrast, as well as their repetition by the subject. V. Wundt believed that human memory consists of three types of associations: verbal (connections between words), external (connections between objects), internal (logical connections of meanings). Verbal associations were considered as the most important means of internalizing sensory impressions, thanks to which they become objects of memorization and reproduction. Individual elements of information according to associationist theories are remembered, stored and reproduced not in isolation, but in certain logical, structural-functional and semantic connections with others. In particular, it has been established how the number of elements that are memorized changes, depending on the repetition of a series of elements and their distribution in time, and how the elements of a series that are memorized are stored in memory, depending on the time that has passed between memorization and reproduction.

Thanks to the associationist theory, the mechanisms and laws of memory were discovered and described. For example, the law of forgetting by G. Ebbinghaus. It is formulated on the basis of experiments with memorizing tripeteric nonsense syllables. According to this law, after the first error-free repetition of a series of such compositions, forgetting occurs quite quickly. During the first hour, up to 60% of all received information is forgotten, and after 6 days - over 80%. The weakness of associationism was its mechanism associated with abstraction from the content, motivational and target activity of memory. It does not take into account, in particular, the selectivity (different individuals do not always remember interconnected elements) and determinism (some objects are retained in memory after a single perception more strongly than others - after repeated repetition) of memory.

Has been strongly criticized associationist theory memory from Gestalt psychology. The starting point in the new theory was the concept of “gestalt” - an image as a holistically organized structure that cannot be reduced to the sum of its parts. This theory especially emphasized the importance of structuring the material, bringing it to integrity, organizing it into a system during memorization and reproduction, as well as the role of human intentions and needs in memory processes (the latter explains the selectivity of mnemonic processes). In studies that were based on gestalt The theory of memory has established many interesting facts. For example, the Zeigarnik phenomenon: if people are offered a series of tasks, and after some time interrupt their execution, it turns out that subsequently study participants are almost twice as likely to remember unfinished tasks than completed ones. This phenomenon is explained as follows. When receiving a task, the subject has a need to complete it, which increases during the process of completion (the scientific director of the experiment, B.V. Zeigarnik, K. Levin called this a quasi-need). This need is fully realized when the task is completed, and remains unsatisfied if it is not completed. Motivation, due to its connection with memory, influences the selectivity of the latter, preserving in it traces of unfinished tasks. Memory, in accordance with this theory, is significantly determined by the structure of the object. It is known that poorly structured material is very difficult to remember, while well-organized material is remembered easily and with almost no repetition. When the material does not have a clear structure, the individual often divides or combines it through rhythmization, symmetrization, etc. A person himself strives to rearrange the material so that he can remember it better. But it is not only the organization of the material that determines the effectiveness of memory. Gestaltists have not explored clear relationships between the objective structure of the material, the subject's activity and memory performance. At the same time, the most important achievements of this theory - the study of memory in connection with perceptual and other mental processes - played important role in the formation of a number of psychological concepts. Behavioral The theory of memory arose from the desire to introduce objective scientific methods into psychology. Behavioral scientists have made a great contribution to the development of experimental psychology of memory, in particular, they have created many techniques that make it possible to obtain its quantitative characteristics. Using the conditioned reflex scheme developed by I. P. Pavlov (“stimulus-response”), they sought to establish the laws of memory as an independent function, abstracting from specific types human activity and maximally regulating the activity of the subjects being studied. The behavioral theory of memory emphasizes the role of exercises necessary to consolidate the material. In the process of consolidation, a transfer of skills occurs - positive or Negative influence results of previous training for further training. The success of consolidation is also influenced by the interval between exercises, the degree of similarity and volume of material, the degree of learning, age and individual differences between people. For example, the connection between an action and its result is remembered the better, the more pleasure this result causes. And vice versa, memorization weakens if the result turns out to be undesirable or indifferent (the law of effect according to E. Thorndike).

The achievements of this memory theory contributed to the development of programmed learning and engineering psychology; its representatives consider behaviorism to be practically the only objective approach to the phenomena under study. The difference between them is that behaviorists emphasize the role of exercise in memorizing material and pay a lot of attention to the study of how memory works in the learning process. Active theory of memory relies on the theory of acts, whose representatives (J. Piaget, A. Vallon, T. Ribot, etc.) consider memory as a historical form of activity, the highest manifestation of which is voluntary memory. They consider free memory to be a biological function, and therefore deny the presence of memory in animals, as well as in children under 3-4 years of age.

The principle of the unity of the psyche and activity, formulated by L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev, S. L. Rubinstein, became fundamental in memory studies conducted on the basis of this theory. L. S. Vygotsky studied memory in terms of the “cultural-historical concept.” Specifics higher forms He saw memory in the use of sign-means, objective and verbal, with the help of which a person regulates the processes of memorization and reproduction. Only under such conditions does memory transform from natural (spontaneous) into mediated, which manifests itself as a special independent form of mnemonic activity. Developing, following P. Janet, the idea of ​​interiorization, L. S. Vygotsky distinguished external forms of mnemonic activity as “social” and internal forms as “intrapsychological”, which genetically develop on the basis of external factors.

A genetic method for studying memory was developed, ways of its experimental study were determined in connection with the role of leading activity at a certain age, the relationship with other mental processes - perceptual, mental, emotional-volitional.

It has been proven that a person gradually masters his memory and learns to manage it.

Consequently, the development of memory occurs through the development of memorization with the help of external signs - stimuli. Then these stimuli are internalized and become internal means, using which the individual begins to manage his memory. It turns into a complexly organized activity necessary in the process of cognition. If not supported by training, good natural memory does not significantly affect an individual’s success.

Representatives of the active theory of memory studied this mental process in connection with the operational, motivational and goal structures of specific types of activity. P. I. Zinchenko developed the concept of spontaneous memory as an active process that is always included in the structure of cognitive or practical activity. In the works of A. A. Smirnov, the role of intellectual and other forms of activity of the subject in conditions of voluntary and spontaneous memorization was revealed.

Thus, an individual’s memory is realized through multi-level mechanisms - psychological, physiological and chemical. All three levels are necessary for the normal functioning of human memory. A person can realize and control only the highest psychological level, which is relatively low. Only at this level does memory become a process mediated by mnemonic actions, a component of cognitive activity.

47.

The activity approach in psychology is a position according to which the human psyche develops according to socio-historical laws and needs to be specified. Let us first note that the understanding of the human psyche as a socially determined formation has its own history. The French psychologist and psychopathologist P. Janet (1859 - 1947) deepened this understanding by formulating the thesis that external relationships between people gradually turn into features of the structure of the individual psyche. The principle of cultural and historical conditioning of the human psyche was revealed more fully in the works of the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky (1899-1934). According to L. S. Vygotsky, the fact of the existence of lower and higher mental functions acquires special significance. An example of the former is involuntary forms of memory and attention. Lower mental functions are the basis on which higher mental functions are formed in the process of education and training, for example, voluntary memory and attention, thinking, and imagination. The transformation of lower functions into higher ones (for example, involuntary memory into voluntary) occurs through the mastery of special products of human culture, its special tools - signs (number systems, language, scientific symbols, visual means, etc.). conclusions:

1. The most general, fundamental provisions of the activity approach to memory are to study it not as an isolated and independent function, but in direct unity with activity, because only in this case are revealed both its true nature and the ability to control it.

2. The activity approach is implemented in two main directions:

a) study of the dependence of memory on activity and

b) the study of memory itself as a special type of activity.

3. The main achievements and results of the activity approach - disclosure of facts:

a) memorization depends on the place of the material in the structure of the activity,

b) memorization has a complex structure, a composition of operations and techniques, which constitute its psychological “fabric.”

48 .

Memorization is a memory process, the result of which is the consolidation of previously perceived information.

In order for memorization to be successful, the following provisions should be adhered to:

1) make a memorization setting;

2) show more activity and independence in the process of memorization (a person will remember the path better if he moves independently than when he is accompanied);

3) group the material according to meaning (drawing up a plan, table, diagram, graph, etc.);

4) the process of repetition when memorizing should be distributed over a certain time (a day, several hours), and not in a row.

5) new repetition improves memorization of previously learned;

6) arouse interest in what is being remembered;

7) the unusual nature of the material improves memorization.

Retention is the retention of previously learned material in memory. Information is retained in memory through repetition, as well as the application of acquired knowledge in practice.

Memory researchers have found that the material that begins and ends the general series of information is best retained; the middle elements are stored less well.

This phenomenon in psychology is called the edge effect.

An interesting fact was discovered by B.V. Zeigarnik. in her experiments, the subjects had to complete about 20 different tasks as quickly and accurately as possible (riddles, small mathematical problems, sculpting figures, etc.). It turned out that those actions that remained unfinished were recalled by the subjects almost twice as often as those that had been completed which they managed to finish.

This phenomenon is called the Zeigarnik effect. As psychological studies have shown, material is forgotten faster in the first time after memorization than in the future; meaningless material is also forgotten faster than if it is connected by a logical chain.

Most often, forgetting is considered a negative phenomenon, but it should be remembered that this is a very expedient, necessary and natural process of memory, otherwise our brain would be overloaded with a mass of unnecessary or unimportant information.

Based on the listed areas, we can determine the following ways and means of improving memory.

1. Use the repetition process correctly.

The most appropriate is repetition that is as close as possible to the perception of the material.

It has been experimentally proven that forgetting is prevented by repetition 15–20 minutes after memorization. It is advisable to do the next repetition after 8–9 hours, and then after 24 hours.

It is also advisable to repeat in the morning with a fresh head and before bed.

2. Remember about the “edge effect”, that is, spend more time repeating the material that is located in the middle of the information series.

Also, when repeating, material in the middle can be placed at the beginning or end.

3. To quickly and reliably remember a sequence of events or objects, you can perform the following series of actions:

1) mentally connect what is being memorized with some easily imaginable or well-known object, and then connect this object with the one that is at hand at the right moment;

2) connect both objects in the imagination with each other in the most bizarre way possible into a single fantastic image;

3) mentally recreate this image.

4. To remember the sequence of events or actions, you can imagine words as characters in a story.

5. The material will be remembered more easily if you use the association technique. To do this, you should ask yourself questions like: “What does this remind me of?”, “What does this look like?” as often as possible. “What other word reminds me of this word?”, “What episode in life does this episode remind me of?” and so on.

6. A sequential chain of events or objects can be remembered if these objects are mentally placed along the daily route to work or school.

Walking along this path, we remember these objects.

Any techniques are good only if they are adapted by a specific person to his own life experience and characteristics of the psyche and behavior.

Therefore, what suits one person may not be suitable for another.

The works of L. S. Vygotsky indicate the connection between the word and the sensory basis in the process of speech formation in a child. Formulating his law of “transition of function upward,” he pointed to the decisive role of perception in the formation of speech and thinking. “A child,” he wrote, “without the development of perception, cannot develop speech, because in the normal functioning of perception we have a prerequisite for the normal development of higher systems.” That is why in a young child “the dominant function is perception, and all other functions act only as a result of and through perception.”

Research by L. S. Vygotsky showed that in the first stages of development, complex mental processes, when formed, rely on and depend on more elementary underlying functions. Elementary functions are, as it were, the basis for the development of such complex mental functions as, for example, speech. L. S. Vygotsky attached decisive importance to the process of perception for the development of speech; he said in this regard that a child in no way can develop speech without the development of perception; a child can speak and think only by perceiving. Formation of perception of various modalities - visual object perception, perception of space and spatial relationships of objects, tactile perception of objects, etc. - creates the basis for generalizing perception and for the formation of images of the real objective world, that primary basis on which speech begins to form. And later, speech, in turn, begins to have a significant impact on the development of images of perception, clarifying and generalizing them.

Consideration of the development and decay of speech also indicates that real world given to a person at the beginning of his life in sensations and ideas, and only later does he receive reflection in words. Ontogenesis data indicate the participation of the process of perception of any modality in the development of such mental processes, like memory, speech, thinking. Due to this pattern, in brain pathology in children, the higher levels of mental functions are “secondarily” impaired and their decay is directly dependent on the decay of more elementary levels of these functions or on the decay of lower-order mental functions that are associated with the affected function. The delay in more highly organized functions, caused by a delay in the development of elementary functions, in early childhood cannot but affect them at a later age, limiting the learning and development opportunities of such children.

Thus, the development of higher mental functions occurs only if constant contact of the child with the objective world is ensured, and contact is not only sensory, but, what is especially important, knowledge of the world through objective activity is necessary. The hand, while not being a specific channel for speech information, at the same time serves as one of the most important links between the perception of the objective world, the impact on it and the processes of verbal thinking.

In young children, motor orientation in circumstances is of decisive importance in the process of executive activity. They follow the stimuli with their eyes, but as a result of such visual acquaintance with the situation they cannot yet acquire knowledge of what and how to do. Visual impressions do not evoke the necessary associations in them, and the significance of certain signals for behavior remains unclear.

Only learning the task using the probing hand can help them become familiar with the situation and influence the process of skill formation. A system of orientations corresponding to the properties of an object develops in young children initially as a system of tactile-motor orientation reactions. Although the eye participates in all their actions, however, at first only the palpating hand can find out the actual features of the object. Later, the hand moves without touching the object, and, finally, the eye, which has followed the hand all the time and accumulated its experience, acquires the ability to perform the orienting function independently. Due to connections formed in previous experience, visual impressions immediately evoke corresponding tactile-kinesthetic associations.

The stage of manipulation with an object is very important for the child, since at the same time he gains experience in various actions and their generalizations, which, in turn, are the genetic roots of thinking and speech. The child’s mastery of object manipulation creates necessary basis to assimilate their verbal substitutes and gives them a more precise and defined meaning.