Psychic processes. Perception is not the sum of sensations received from this or that object, but a qualitatively new stage of sensory cognition with its inherent abilities. Distribution - the ability to keep track of multiple items or execution at the same time

Introduction

The relevance of the topic is determined by the need for a modern person to have scientific knowledge about the human psyche. Such knowledge helps in solving problems, as in Everyday life as well as in the field of professional activity.

The whole variety of mental phenomena in psychology is conventionally subdivided into mental processes, mental states and mental properties. All these forms of mental phenomena are closely related to each other, they are not something independent and isolated, and their selection is determined by the methodological need to make more convenient study such a complex object as the mental life of a person. Thus, the selected categories represent more a structure of knowledge about the psyche than the structure of the psyche itself. At the same time, many researchers focus on the system, integrity and indivisibility of the psyche as its fundamental property.

The mental functional system in action is mental process . Let's consider the main mental processes most often singled out by the authors of textbooks and manuals on psychology.

Psychological processes are inherent in every person. Mental processes: sensations, perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking and speech. They are the basic components of 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 mental processes(speech, thinking, etc.) a person becomes inferior. Activity forms mental processes. Any activity is a combination of internal and external behavioral actions and operations. We will consider each type of mental activity separately. .

The purpose of the study: to studybasic psychological processes, states, properties.

Research objectives:

To study the pedagogical and methodological literature on the research problem;

- select and organize material.

1. Basic psychological processes, states and properties.

All mental processes can be divided into two main groups.

Specific, or actually cognitive, processes, which are sensation, perception and thinking. The result of these processes is the knowledge of the subject about the world and about himself, obtained either with the help of the senses, or rationally:

sensation is the selection 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 an image, objects;

thinking is a reflection of the relationship between objects, their properties that are essential for cognition.

Cognitive processes consist of many elements (Fig. 1.).

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 reduced to it. Thanks to the universal mental processes, the cognizing, developing subject has the ability to maintain the unity of "his Self" in time:

memory allows a person to retain past experience;

attention helps to extract actual (real) experience;

imagination predicts future experience .

Mental properties determine the constant ways of human interaction with the world, and mental states determine the activity "here and now". Each mental state is characterized by one or more parameters that distinguish it from the set of states. Dominance in the state of one or another cognitive mental process, emotion or activation level is determined by what activity or behavioral act this state provides.

The following main characteristics of mental states are distinguished:

Emotional (anxiety, joy, sadness, etc.);

Activation (the level of intensity of mental processes);

Tonic (psychophysiological resource of the individual);

Tension (level of mental stress);

Temporary (state duration);

Condition sign (favorable or unfavorable for activity) .

2. Cognitive psychological processes

1. Feelings

So, the process of cognition is the acquisition, retention and preservation of knowledge about the world. Feelings are one of the components of the cognitive process.

Sensations are defined as the process of reflection of individual properties, objects and phenomena of the objective world with 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 body of the subject himself 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..

The need to constantly receive sensations is well manifested when there are no external stimuli (with sensory isolation).

Human sensations are extremely diverse, although since the time of Aristotle, only five senses have been talked about for a very long time - sight, 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, vibrational, "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 can be hue, lightness, saturation; for auditory - pitch, timbre, loudness; for tactile - hardness, roughness, etc.

Localization - a spatial characteristic of sensations, that is, 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, indefinite. The “probe problem” is interesting in this regard: when we write or cut something, the sensations are localized at the tip of a pen or knife, i.e. not at all where the probe contacts the skin, affects it.

Intensity is a classic quantitative characteristic. The problem of measuring the intensity of sensation is one of the main problems 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 observable forms of behavior and mental states primarily by differences in the physical situations that cause them. The task is to establish a connection between the body and the soul, the object and the sensation associated with it. The area of ​​irritation causes sensation. Each sense organ has its own boundaries, which means that there is an area of ​​sensation. There are such variants of the basic psychophysical law 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 the temporal characteristic of sensation. It is determined by the functional state of the sense 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 termination. The period from the beginning of the action of the stimulus to the onset of sensation is called the latent (hidden) period of sensation. It is not the same for different types of sensations (for tactile - 130 ms, for pain - 370 ms, for taste - 50 ms) and can change dramatically in diseases of the nervous system.

After the termination of the stimulus, its trace remains for some time in the form of a sequential 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 sequential images because of their short duration. The appearance of successive images can be explained by the phenomenon of retinal fatigue.

Auditory sensations, like visual sensations, can also be accompanied by successive images. The most comparable phenomenon is "ringing in the ears", that is, an unpleasant sensation that often accompanies exposure to deafening sounds..

2. Perception

Perception is a reflection of integral objects and phenomena with their direct impact on the senses. In the course of perception, there is an ordering and unification of individual sensations into integral images of things. Unlike sensations, which reflect the individual properties of the stimulus, perception reflects the object as a whole, in the aggregate of its properties.

Representatives of psychology interpret perception as a kind of integral configuration - gestalt. Integrity - according to Gestalt psychology - is always the selection of a figure against the background. Details, parts, properties can only be separated from the whole image later. Gestalt psychologists have established many laws of perceptual organization that are completely different from the laws of associations, according to which elements are linked into an integral structure (the laws of proximity, isolation, good form, etc.). They convincingly proved that the integral structure of the image affects 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 circles and the other by small circles, etc..

The main features of perception are distinguished:

integrity and structure - perception reflects a holistic image of the object, which, in turn, is formed on the basis of generalized knowledge about the individual properties and qualities of the object. Perception is able to capture not only separate parts of sensations (individual notes), but also a generalized structure woven from these sensations (entire melody);

constancy - the preservation of certain properties of the image of the object, which seem to us constant. So, an object known to us (for example, a hand), remote 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 approximate the true properties of this object. Our perceptual system corrects the inevitable errors caused by the infinite variety of surroundings 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 stops noticing these distortions, although they are reflected on the retina. So, the constancy of perception that is formed in the process of objective activity is a necessary condition for a person's orientation in a changing world;

the objectivity of perception is an act of objectification, that is, the assignment 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 the main role is played by touch and movement. Objectivity also plays an important role in the regulation of 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 action of the stimulus on the 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 meanings. To consciously perceive an object means to mentally name it and attribute the perceived object to a certain group, class of objects, to generalize 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, that is, the assignment of the 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 “work”;e memory

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 in the process of perception;

apperception property. The perceptual system actively "builds" the image of perception, selectively using not all, but the most informative properties, parts, elements of the stimulus. At the same time, information from memory, past experience is also used, which is attached to sensory data (apperception). In the process of formation, the image itself and the actions for its construction are constantly corrected through feedback, the image is compared with the reference one..

Thus, perception depends not only on irritation, but also on the perceiving object itself - a particular person. Perception always affects the personality of the perceiver, his attitude to the perceived, needs, aspirations, emotions at the time of perception, etc. Perception, therefore, is closely related to the content of a person’s mental life.

3. Thinking

Thinking is a process that, as it were, connects the past, present and future, becomes over time, establishing a connection between causes (past), consequences (future) and conditions for the implementation of cause-and-effect relationships (present). It is no coincidence that in thinking a decisive role is played by the reversibility of operations, which makes it possible to restore the initial conditions based on the result of the action, to solve both the direct and inverse problems.

Thinking is a process of mediated and generalized cognition of reality. The result of thinking is subjectively new knowledge that cannot be taken out of direct experience (the content of sensations, perceptions, ideas). The products of fantasy are also the result of the transformation of the individual's past experience. But the product of fantasy may have nothing to do with objective reality. The results of the thought process always claim to be true and are verifiable. Thinking provides future forecasting and decision making

Thinking is the process of modeling the systematic relations of the surrounding world on the basis of unconditional provisions. However, in psychology there are many other definitions. .

For example - the highest stage information processing by a person or animal, the process of establishing links between objects or phenomena of the surrounding world; or - the process of reflecting the essential properties of objects, as well as the connections between them, which leads to the emergence of ideas about objective reality. The debate over the definition continues to this day.

In pathopsychology and neuropsychology, thinking is 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 stage of human cognition, the process of reflection in the brain of the surrounding 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 the psychophysiological mechanisms - respectively - of psychology and physiology (from the point of view of physiology and psychology, this definition is more accurate) .

4. Speech

Speech - this is communication activity - expressions, influences, messages - through the language speech is language in action. Speech, both one with language and different from it, is the unity of a certain activity - communication - and a certain content, which stands for and, denoting, reflects being. More precisely, speech is a form of existence consciousness (thoughts, feelings, experiences) for another, clerk means of communication with him, and the form of a generalized reflection of reality, or the form of the existence of thinking.

In psychological sciencespeechis understood as a system of sound signals, written signs and symbols used by a person to transmit information; the process of materialization of thought. It is important to distinguish speech from language. Their main difference is as follows .

Language - this is a system of conditional symbols, with the help of which combinations of sounds are transmitted that have certain meanings and meaning for people. If language is an objective, historically established system of codes, the subject of a special science - linguistics (linguistics), then speech is a psychological process of forming and transmitting thoughts by means of language. As a psychological process, speech is the subject of a branch of psychology called "psycholinguistics".

The following features of speech are distinguished:

Expresses the psychological characteristics of a single person;

The most perfect activity inherent in a person, transmitting thoughts and feelings.

Speech is also understood as a set of spoken or perceived sounds that have the same meaning and the same sound as the corresponding system of written signs.Sign- a symbol or object that serves as a substitute for another object .

3. Universal mental processes

1. Memory

Cognitive processes reflect the spatio-temporal characteristics of the objective world and correlate with them. Memory is correlated with the past tense, it stores traces of experienced thoughts, images, actions, emotions and feelings. The reflection of the actual reality, which ensures adaptation to the present, is controlled by sensory-perceptual processes.

Memory - this is the memorization, preservation and subsequent reproduction by the individual of his experience. In memory, the following main processes are distinguished: memorization, preservation, reproduction and forgetting. These processes are formed in activity and determined by it..

Memory is the most important, defining characteristic of the mental life of a person. The role of memory cannot be reduced to fixing what “was in the past”. After all, no action in the "present" is unthinkable outside the processes of memory; the flow of any, even the most elementary, mental act necessarily implies the retention of each of its elements for "coupling" with the subsequent ones. Without the ability for such cohesion, development is impossible: a person would remain "forever in the position of a newborn."

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 an evolving, multi-level storage system (sensory register, short-term memory, long-term memory). Memory as a system of processes for organizing information for the purpose of memorization, preservation and reproduction can also be considered as a substructure of intelligence - a systemic interaction of cognitive abilities and the knowledge that a person has.

Being the most important characteristic of all mental processes, memory ensures the unity and integrity of the human personality.

Separate types of memory are singled out in accordance with three main criteria:

1. by nature mental activity, prevailing in activity, memory is divided into motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical;

2. by the nature of the goals of the activity - into involuntary and arbitrary;

3. according to the duration of fixing and preservation of the material - for short-term, long-term and operational.

2. Attention

Attention is one of the sides 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 into a drawing of a detail. Attention is included in the process of perception, in the process of memory, thinking, imagination. The presence of attention in human activity makes it productive, organized and active.

Attention is the concentration of consciousness and its focus on something that has a particular meaning for a person. Orientation refers to the selective nature of this activity and its preservation, and concentration refers to 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.

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 the inner experience of a person. But as long as introspection remained the main research method, the problem of attention eluded psychologists. Attention served only as a "stand", a tool for their mental experiments. Using an objective experimental method, W. Wundt found 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 (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 has become 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 the objective structure of the field, and not the intentions of the subject, determine the perception of objects and events. Behaviorists rejected attention and consciousness as the main concepts of the psychology of consciousness. They attempted to drop these words altogether, as they erroneously hoped that they could develop some more precise concepts that would allow, using strict quantitative characteristics, objectively describe the relevant 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 single out the following criteria for attention:

external reactions - motor, vegetative, providing conditions for better signal perception. These include turning the head, fixing the eyes, facial expressions and posture of concentration, holding the breath, vegetative components of the orienting reaction;

focus on a particular activity. This criterion is the main one for "activity" approaches to the study of attention. It is associated with the organization of activities and control over its implementation;

increase in the productivity of cognitive and executive activity. AT this case we are talking about increasing the effectiveness of "attentive" action (perceptual, mnemonic, mental, motor) in comparison with "inattentive";

selectivity (selectivity) of information. This criterion is expressed in the ability to actively perceive, memorize, analyze only part of the incoming information, as well as in responding only to a limited range of external stimuli;

clarity and distinctness of the contents of consciousness that are 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 the focal area and the periphery. Units of the focal area of ​​consciousness appear to be 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 with the perception of objects, but also with memories and reflections..

Not all phenomena of attention are associated with consciousness. The remarkable Russian psychologist H. H. Lange divided the objective and subjective aspects 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 turn pale, less and less conscious. Attention, considered objectively, is nothing but the relative dominance of a given representation at a given moment in time; subjectively, it means to be focused on this impression (Lange N. N., 1976).

3. Imagination

Imagination, forecasts, fantasies, goal-setting processes are correlated with the future.

Imagination refers to the "universal" mental processes. Imagination is the mental process of creating an image of an object by transforming reality or ideas about 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, ideas.

The product or result of the process of imagination are images of the imagination. They may arise in accordance with instructions, instructions from another subject, based on viewing photographs, paintings, movies, listening to music, perceiving individual sounds and noises, or through a description of an event, thing, character, or association with something. . Only one list of ways to produce images of the imagination 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 the images of the imagination are always secondary, that is, they are “rooted” in the 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).

Unlike mental images (concepts, judgments, conclusions), the control function is significantly reduced here. 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 hallmark 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 is seen, heard, perceived at some point in time or point of view, approach to the interpretation of a person. There is more of this novelty in the processes of creation, but less in the recreating imagination.

Finally, visualization of images is related to imagination, they can be attributed to any modality (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, etc.).

The main functions of the imagination:

Goal-setting - the future result of the activity is created in the imagination, it exists only in the mind of the subject and directs his activity to obtain the desired.

Anticipation (anticipation) - modeling the future (positive or negative consequences, the course of interaction, the content of the situation) by summarizing the 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 the elements of perception and past experience with the results of the analytical and synthetic activity of the mind.

Substitution of reality - a person may be deprived of the opportunity to really act or be in a certain situation, then by the power of his imagination he is transferred there, performs actions in his imagination, thereby replacing the 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 is experienced (experienced at a given moment in time) by another being, 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

Psychological processes include certain psychophysical functions as components, which, in turn, are included in certain specific forms of activity, within which and depending on which they are formed. Thus, psychology can and should study the process of thinking in the general patterns of its course, which distinguish the thought process, for example, from the elementary associative process. In reality, this thought process is usually carried out in the course of some specific activity - practical labor activity that solves a certain production problem, the activity of an inventor rationalizing this production process, in the theoretical work of a scientist solving some problem, or, finally, in the educational activity of a student. assimilating in the process of teaching the knowledge already obtained by science. Being actually carried out in various types of concrete activity, mental processes are formed in it. And only by studying them in the real context of this activity, it is possible to reveal not only the more particular, but also the mostgenerallaws of mental processes as reallymeaningful patterns.

Thus, it is necessary to conclude that perception is a very complex, but at the same time, a single process aimed at understanding what is currently affecting us.

Attention is not an independent mental process, since it cannot manifest itself outside of other processes. We attentively or inattentively listen, look, think, do. Thus, attention is only a property of various mental processes.

In thinking, the relationship between the conditions of activity and its goal is established, knowledge is transferred from one situation to another, and this situation is transformed into an appropriate generalized scheme.

It should be borne in mind that, despite the close interaction of thinking and speech, these two phenomena are not the same thing. To think is not to speak aloud or to oneself. Evidence of this is the possibility of expressing the same thought in different words, as well as the fact that we do not always find the right words to express our thought. Despite the fact that the thought that has arisen in us is understandable to us, often we cannot find a suitable verbal form for its expression.

A person not only cognizes reality in the processes of perception, memory, imagination and thinking, but at the same time he relates in one way or another to certain facts of life, experiences certain feelings in relation to them.

Feelings are a special mental state experienced by the subject, where the perception and understanding of something, knowledge about something acts in unity with a personal attitude to the perceived, understood, known or unknown. In all these cases, they speak of feeling as a special emotional state of a person. The main emotional states that a person experiences are divided into emotions proper, feelings and affects. They are included in all mental processes and human states.

Mental processes, states and properties form the main conceptual "framework" on which the building of modern psychology is built.

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Application

Fig.1

The concept of mental processes. Mental processes are elementary units that we can distinguish in mental activity, its "atoms". The processes are primary - on their basis the entire complex system of the functioning of the psyche is built. Processes are dynamic - they have their own course, development. Let's describe the main processes.

Feeling and perception. Sensations are elementary mental processes, which are a subjective reflection of a living being. simple properties of the surrounding world in the form of mental phenomena, elements, components of perception that make up images. The following types of sensations are distinguished: skin (touch, or pressure, there are temperature and pain), proprioceptive (position of the body in space, relative positions of body parts), organic (coming from the nerve cells of the internal organs), taste and olfactory, visual and auditory. Sensations are possible due to the presence of receptors - special nerve cells that perceive this effect, pathways (nerves) and cells of the central nervous system that are able to receive and process this or that signal. The combinations of these nervous formations are called sensory systems. Phylogenetically the most ancient, i.e., the earliest to arise in evolution, are sensations that directly relate to the state of the body - pain, temperature, younger - taste and smell. Then, in the history of species, visual sensory systems, and the youngest are auditory.

Every sensation has absolute and relative thresholds. The absolute threshold is the minimum amount of stimulus that can cause a sensation. For example, for the sense of smell, it can be several hundred molecules of a substance. The absolute threshold, however, is individual for each individual. The relative, or differential, threshold is the magnitude of a stimulus that can elicit a sensation that is distinct from that evoked by a stimulus of a different magnitude. So, a person can hear a sound with a frequency of 16 Hz, but is able to distinguish one sound from another only starting from a height of 40 Hz. There is also an upper threshold of sensation, which usually borders on painful sensations, for example, sound above 14,000 Hz causes pain.

Auditory sensations allow you to describe sound in terms of loudness, pitch, timbre. Loudness corresponds to the sound intensity, measured in decibels. A person perceives sound from 3 to 130–140 dB, the last number corresponds to the upper limit of audibility, the pain threshold. The pitch of a perceived sound, or tonality, corresponds to the frequency of the sound, measured in hertz. The lower threshold of hearing is 16 Hz, the upper one is about 20,000 Hz (for comparison: in a dog it is 38,000 Hz). Our usual range lies in the region from 1000 to 3000 Hz, pain threshold is at the level of 14,000-16,000 Hz. Timbre is a complex characteristic of sound that has no direct physical analogue, just like timbre we distinguish a complex pattern of sound tones - a combination of sounds of a certain loudness and height.

Visual sensations are formed by determining the hue, brightness and saturation. The shape of an object is transmitted by reflecting light spots on the retina of the eye. different color and tone, and movement - due to the movement of these spots.

A person perceives light waves with a length of 390 to 780 nanometers, i.e. bottom line is at the infrared level, the upper one is at the ultraviolet level. The human eye is able to perceive a light pulse of 8-47 quanta (this is the lower threshold of perception) and a 1-1.5% change in surface illumination (this is the differential threshold of visual perception). The upper threshold of visual perception is the most relative - the state of blindness depends on the adaptation of the eye to light - and can be caused even by normal daylight, if the eye is accustomed to a lack of light.

In man visual perception is the leading one - according to experts, 90% of all information comes through this channel. Hearing, smell, touch and other channels of perception are of much lesser importance.

The process of perception is built on the basis of sensations.
Perception is the process of receiving and processing various information by a person, culminating in the formation of an image. Perception is not just the result of the integration of data entering the brain through various sensory organs, information stored in memory, thinking and other mental processes are connected to the formation of a holistic image. The hallmark of perception is integrity. Let us clarify: describing an object only with the words “cold”, “big”, “white”, we are still at the level of sensations, but as soon as we correlate these data and get a holistic image of the object (whether it be a refrigerator or the mythical Gorgon Medusa), we can talk about perception. An integral feature of perception is also meaningfulness: we can always think about the formed image and describe it in words.

The image contains not only information received from the sense organs, but other cognitive processes are also involved in the process of its formation, the process of completing the image is underway. In this case, normal errors often occur. So, if a white cylinder with a red end is presented to the subjects, most people tend to assume that the second end, which is not visible, i.e., is beyond the limits of perception, is also red. On the one hand, the process of completing the construction of an image is necessary in everyday life - we can most often guess the entire object from fragmentary elements of the image, on the other hand, this effect still sometimes leads to errors in perception.

An illusion is an image that is a product of real sensations, but incorrectly reflects reality. This is a perceptual error that occurs due to the interference in the process of perception of memory, desire, fantasy, some attitude or other mental phenomenon. For example, a person may mistake a jacket hanging on a chair in a dark room for a seated person or a cloud. atypical shape for a flying saucer. The appearance of illusions is considered a normal mental phenomenon. They should be distinguished from hallucinations - fully constructed images that are subjectively perceived as real objects. Thus, a person may claim to see objects or hear sounds that do not exist in objective reality. Hallucinosis is considered a pathological process.

We live in a four-dimensional world: we know three spatial dimensions and one time dimension. The perception of space is not innate and develops in the process of learning. A person determines the size of objects by comparing them with other objects and relying on his previous experience. However, if the subject is presented with an isolated object, such as a cube on a white background, which is shown through a special hole in the screen so that the distance to it cannot be determined, then the person will not be able to determine its size. The perception of space arises due to the ratio of the distance to the object and its size. binocular vision matters in the perception of space, but life experience is decisive - we learn to determine distance and size and can perceive space using only one eye.

Very seldom do they pay attention to another dimension available human perception, is the perception of time. Time is perceived as irreversible uniform motion from the past to the future. We have learned to express time in units of duration: seconds, hours, days, years. The subjective perception of time is different from the objective one: it can flow unevenly - stretch or shrink. In the experiment, one group of subjects was offered interesting games, while the other was placed in separate empty rooms and asked to wait. People who were having fun perceived the 10-minute time interval as very short - 2-3 minutes, and those who were waiting indicated the same time period as 15 minutes. So it became known that subjective time flows unevenly - it can "slow down" and "accelerate" depending on the circumstances.

Knowledge about sensations and perceptions is important in obtaining testimony, resolving the issue of recognizing a person as sane, identifying special mental states that are important in criminal and civil cases.

Attention and memory. Attention is a state of mental concentration, concentration on an object. Attention is not an independent process, it is a process of regulation of other cognitive processes, a characteristic of mental activity, the state of our perception, consciousness, thinking, memory. Attention always has an object to which it is directed, whether it be an object of the surrounding world, a memory or a fantasy. The roots of attention can be traced in a state of alertness, vigilance, an orienting reflex. Attention is a mental process designed to quickly rebuild the psyche in response to changing environmental conditions and maintain special treatment work of the psyche for the right time.

Allocate involuntary and voluntary attention. Involuntary attention is primary, a person is born with it, it persists throughout life. Involuntary attention is established and maintained regardless of conscious desire and will. Voluntary attention is the ability to consciously direct attention to an object, its formation is associated with the development of the will. It is believed that voluntary attention is normally formed by 4-6 years of age. Voluntary and involuntary attention perform somewhat different functions: involuntary attention is passive, uncontrollable, but it plays the role of a “watchman” directing cognitive processes to the most important, strong external stimuli, including those that are rejected by consciousness; voluntary attention is active, it is subject to the will and makes it possible to arbitrarily adjust mental processes, ignoring information rejected by consciousness.

Such a division of attention into two types is ideal to a certain extent, therefore some authors also call voluntary-involuntary attention - a mixed type: attention that does not require willpower, but is under the control of consciousness. This is a situation when we follow some phenomenon "out of the corner of our eye".

Attention can be described in terms of its concentration, volume, persistence, and switchability. The concentration of attention, or concentration, expresses the intensity of the connection between the subject and consciousness. The amount of attention is measured by the number of objects that are perceived simultaneously. Stability - the duration during which a given concentration of attention is maintained. Switchability is the ability to reorient cognitive processes from one subject to another. These characteristics of attention are functionally interconnected: a change in one entails a change in the others. So, high concentration leads to a decrease in switchability or reduces the amount of attention.

It was noted that in a 2-4-year-old child, switchability is two to three times higher than in a 4-6-year-old child. These data indirectly testify to the process of formation of voluntary attention (indirectly, since concentration of attention does not yet mean voluntariness). Arbitrariness is the ability to consciously change the nature of attention.

Psychological examination of attention is important in obtaining testimony, assessing the maturity of a person, identifying special mental states that are important in criminal and civil cases.

Memory is the process of remembering, storing and subsequent reproduction of information. Memory is a reflection and reproduction of past events, one of the basic mental processes. The basis of memorization is imprinting - an almost exact copy of the picture of reality. Initially, in a newborn, memory exists only in the form of involuntary imprinting, and only later, with the development of thinking, will, consciousness, voluntary attention, the second type of memory is formed - voluntary memory. Thus, we distinguish two types of memory - involuntary and arbitrary. Arbitrary, or conscious, memory differs from imprinting and involuntary memory in selectivity, it is mediated by the processes of voluntary attention and thinking, and is always purposeful. Memorization is not a passive process and therefore not photographic: already at the stage of storing information, its primary processing takes place - generalization, systematization, selection of essential features and sifting out everything superfluous.

Arbitrary memorization that occurs over more than late stages development and, it would seem, more progressive, nevertheless inferior to the involuntary. In one of the experiments, in the first case, the subjects were shown pictures and instructed to memorize as much as possible, and in the second case, an abstract goal not related to memorization was set. It turned out that a larger amount of information was stored in the case when the task of memorizing the drawings was not set. Thus, it was concluded that most of the information we learn is due to involuntary memory.

Allocate short-term and long-term memory. Short-term memory retains information for a time interval from a few seconds to two minutes, although this duration is conventionally allocated. Long-term memory is able to retain information for several minutes, hours, days, years. Short-term memory usually stores information for as long as the object is in our sphere of attention, and as soon as we are distracted, its contents are erased. Long-term memory stores information in an inactive state, but under certain conditions it can be activated.

Short-term memory is often compared to computer RAM, and long-term memory is often compared to permanent memory. But unlike a computer, the human brain eventually erases most of the unclaimed information or the one that he does not use for a long time. This is another mental mechanism that provides a flexible response to changing conditions - the unnecessary is erased, making room for more useful information. This process is described by the "forgetting curve" - ​​for the first hour about 59.2% of information is stored in memory, after 9 hours 35.8% remains, after a day - 27.3%, after two days - 25.4%, and then forgetting becomes insignificant. Note that forgetting occurs rapidly during the first 9 hours, then less rapidly - within two days, and the remaining amount of information is stored by long-term memory in almost unchanged volume. Given the law of the “forgetting curve”, we can assume that the farther in time an event is, the less we can remember about it. However, there is an amendment to this rule. Reminiscence is a phenomenon when the subsequent reproduction of information is richer than the previous one, this is a gradual recall. Reminiscence is possible due to the fact that, focusing on the need to remember, we raise ever deeper layers of memory, “unwind” the memory, and receive clues from outside.

In memorizing information, its meaningfulness, the emotional richness of the experience, the relevance of the information, i.e. its significance for the rememberer, play a role. Meaningful, logically linked information is remembered much better than unstructured one: a person is able to remember an average of 7-10 words from the first reading and only 4-7 meaningless combinations of sounds. In a situation of emotional stress, memory improves. We better assimilate information that is meaningful to us, and forget that which does not cause an emotional or mental response.

Memory is not only the assimilation and storage of information, but also the ability to subsequently reproduce it, that is, to remember. The first step to remembering is recognition - this is the stage when we still cannot consciously recall an image from memory, but we are able to distinguish once perceived information from new information. A typical example is when a person cannot describe the face of another person, but is able to recognize him upon meeting. True memorization is characterized by the ability to consciously reproduce the image stored by memory. Reproduction is not a mechanical reproduction of the image, it is a reconstruction during which the image is built anew. In the experiment, the subjects were shown a geometric composition resembling a house, but with one unfinished wall. When, after some time, they were asked to reproduce the image, most of the subjects built this figure, completing the face that did not exist in the original. Thus, it was shown that memorization is not photographic, the integrity of perception and logic "prompted" to the subjects one more line. These are normal memory errors, but there are also pathological forms described below. Pathological disorders memory is most often the result of mental illness or traumatic brain injury.

Amnesia is memory loss, temporary or permanent. Temporary memory loss - loss of memory of events that occurred in a period of time from several minutes to several days - may be the result of a traumatic brain injury or emotional disorder (affect or severe stress). Retrograde amnesia - forgetting the events of the past - can occur in two forms: from the present to the past and from the past to the present. In the first case, a person may not remember what he did during the day, whether he had dinner, whether he watched a TV program, but he recalls events related to his youth and youth with sufficient accuracy. In the second case, he remembers the events of the last days, but cannot indicate where he was born, studied, lived and worked. Paramnesia, or false memory, can manifest itself in the form of pseudo-reminiscences - the substitution of events with memories from other moments of life, the substitution of real events for heard or read facts, confabulations - the replacement of real events of the past with fantastic, fictional pictures. In all cases of paramnesia, the person himself sincerely believes that his memories are real.

Let's return to the norm: depending on the leading channel of perception, memory can be visual, auditory (auditory), kinesthetic (motor), depending on the leading type of thinking - visual-figurative or verbal-logical. Memorization and reproduction are easier if a person uses the type of memory that he has more developed.

Memory can be characterized in terms of "accuracy", "volume", "longevity". Accuracy is a value that expresses the ratio of correctly reproduced units of information and erroneous ones. Volume expresses the total number of correctly reproduced units of information. Long-term is the duration of retention in memory of a constant volume of correctly reproduced units of information.

Psychological examination of memory helps to clarify complex issues related to the testimony of victims, witnesses and suspects, including the results of identification, identifying special mental states that are important for making a judgment.

Thinking and intelligence. Thinking is a mental process of generalized and indirect reflection of reality; in fact, it is a process of information processing. Thinking operates with signs and symbols in which the facts of objective reality are encoded. Thinking is a mental process that reveals the relationship between objects and phenomena, thanks to it we compare, compare, distinguish, reveal the relationship between the data obtained through the perception system. Thinking reveals the properties of things and phenomena and reveals new, inaccessible directly to the senses, their abstract properties. We do not need to directly observe a phenomenon in order to analyze it and draw a conclusion - we can process information about it logically. This feature of thinking is possible thanks to speech - a system for transmitting signs and symbols.

Thinking and speech are closely interconnected; they cannot develop and exist without each other. Through speech, communication, the child is given concepts - symbols, behind which the totality of the integral features of the described object is hidden, the basic methods of information processing are instilled - the logic of thinking.

The thought process consists of the operations of analysis, classification and synthesis, or integration, of information. Analysis allows you to separate the essential and non-essential properties of an object or phenomenon, random and necessary connections, that is, to separate mere coincidences and real patterns. The task of thinking is to identify the essential, significant features and connections, after which its next stage is possible - classification. The classification is based on the allocation of concepts - mediated and generalized knowledge about the subject, based on the disclosure of its more or less significant objective connections and relationships. The process of integrating information allows you to move from isolated cases to patterns and forecasting: thinking in a generalized form reveals the principle of solving a problem and anticipates the solution of similar problems that may arise in the future.

Violations of thinking are the result of a violation of any of the operations that make it up. Violation of the analysis operation consists in the inability to separate essential, significant features from minor ones, as a result, a person cannot responsibly proceed to the stage of classification, and then to generalization. In cases of impaired thinking, a person either “splits up” reality too much, that is, he sees only differences in objects, but does not find common features, for example, he cannot attribute a cat and a dog to the same class - animals, or falls into too broad generalizations, relying on faint signs and the connection of objects, for example, finds the similarity of a flower and an airplane in that both of them are "drawn in blue." The underdevelopment of thinking is characterized by the inability to abstract from concrete concepts and reach a higher, abstract level. Violation of thinking is a pathological process.

Normally, every thought process is an action aimed at solving a specific problem. This task includes the goal of the individual's mental activity, correlated with the conditions by which it is set. The goal always arises in connection with the existence of certain motives or the need to satisfy a certain need. The motive creates a problem situation, which is Starting point thought process. The problem situation determines the involvement of the individual in the thought process.

There are several types of thinking: visual-effective, visual-figurative and abstract, or theoretical. Visual-effective thinking arises in ontogeny, i.e., the development of the individual, most early. It is based on the empirical experience of a person, the concrete experience of his communication with surrounding objects. A simple example visual-figurative thinking is the conclusion that if the taps do not open to the left, they open to the right. Visual-figurative thinking is a higher level of development of thinking. Here a person does not need to empirically find out the facts of reality, but it is enough to scroll through the mind possible options. Thus, we can imagine possible options for connecting the rails of a kite, having no real experience in carpentry, but having a general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe options for connecting rigid parts. Abstract thinking is the highest level of development of thinking, when a person, in the process of solving a problem, refers to concepts and logical schemes, performs actions in the mind without resorting to practical experience. It is thanks to abstract thinking that we are subject to tasks of the type: A is equal to B, B is not equal to C, therefore, A is not equal to C (a very wide range of tasks can be solved using this scheme). The result of abstract thinking is always a judgment - a conclusion about the inherent properties of objects or phenomena and significant relationships between them.

Based on what kind of information a person deals with, mathematical, verbal, artistic, spatial thinking is distinguished. Thanks to the leading way of processing information, logical and associative thinking can be noted. Logical thinking relies on given sequences, and the associative acts by bringing analogies.

In connection with questions of thinking, one more important concept should be mentioned - intelligence.

Intelligence is a relatively stable structure of an individual's mental abilities, a certain level of development of a person's mental activity, which provides the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and use it in the course of life. Intelligence is essentially a set of skills for solving problem situations, strategies for finding solutions. Psychologists have developed criteria for assessing the degree of development of mental functions - the IQ.

Psychological examination of thinking may be important for identifying the maturity of the individual, sanity, the ability to realize the nature of the actions performed, and the restoration of the crime planning process.

Speech is a system of signs and symbols used by a person to represent, process, store and transmit information. In evolution, speech arose along with thinking in the process of social labor activity and developed in the process of the socio-historical development of mankind in unity with thinking. Thanks to speech, the individual consciousness of each person, not limited to personal experience, one’s own observations, is fed and enriched by the results of social experience through language, and the observations and knowledge of all people become or can become the property of everyone.

Speech activity performs two main functions - communicative and significative. The significative role of language is connected with its sign-semantic aspect. With the help of words in which concepts and meanings are encoded, we can exchange information about the world around us, transmit information and receive it, without having a direct connection with the object about which in question. The communicative side of communication is associated with the transfer of emotions and feelings of communicating people.

In accordance with these components, verbal and non-verbal components of communication are distinguished. The verbal component includes all the factual information transmitted to the interlocutor. For ease of understanding the differences between verbal and non-verbal, we point out that we can convey all verbal information using written speech. The non-verbal component, which carries the emotional component, is contained in the facial expressions, posture of the speaker, his gestures, intonations, speech speed, and gaze. According to the features of the non-verbal component of the speaker's speech, one can determine his emotional state, which helps to clarify a person's attitude to events, the features of his personal attitudes and to identify lies.

Speech disorders can have two main forms: the inability to speak, i.e., the inability to translate the concept into verbal form, and the inability to understand speech - the inability to extract meaning from the word-symbol. Such deviations are most often the result of gross violations of brain activity, craniocerebral trauma.

In legal practice, the psychology of speech, the main function of which is the ability to be a means of communication, is of general importance, but can also be useful in diagnosing special mental conditions that are important for considering criminal and civil cases, as well as identifying false testimony.

Imagination, will and emotions. Imagination is the ability to imagine an absent or non-existent object, keep it in mind and manipulate it. It is believed that imagination is the ability of only the human psyche, it is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, foresight of the future, planning and implementation of behavior programs. Thanks to the imagination, fantasies are possible as complex, detailed pictures of a non-existent reality or a supposed future. It provides a creative transformation of reality due to its innovative potential.

Imagination, however, is not free from objective reality - the new images it creates are a combination of previously seen, objectively existing. This is the process of compiling (rearranging and combining) already known images and facts. This kind of creative transformation serves as the basis for intellectually innovative activity, which essentially ensures the thought process. The set goals, thanks to the imagination, are provided with a program of action and, ultimately, are realized in action. In other words, the planning of activities initially occurs precisely in fantasies.

The propensity for increased fantasizing is the tendency of the individual to create pictures of reality that are not directly relevant for his life path, while fantasies are experienced very vividly and often replace reality. Getting used to a fictional reality can be so strong that the individual begins to sincerely believe in the events he himself created. Being quite normal for children and early adolescence, a tendency to increased fantasizing in adulthood indicates deviations in personality development.

An analysis of the nature of the imagination process and its content is important when considering the individual psychological qualities of a person that are important for making a judgment and restoring the process of planning a crime.

Will is a process of mental regulation designed to create and direct effort and, as necessary, maintain tension. Thanks to the will, a person can, on his own initiative, based on a perceived need, perform actions in accordance with a given plan. Will provides self-determination and self-regulation of the activity and flow of various mental processes.

Will is closely related to consciousness and attention. The volitional process is always conscious: it can be tracked, analyzed, arbitrarily called, it is a means of control, but it is also controlled by consciousness. Attention is necessary for the realization of volitional effort: only what is in the sphere of human attention can be affected by volitional effort.

The will is formed and developed under the influence of society's control over human behavior and only then is it internalized, that is, it becomes a purely internal mental process - self-control of the individual. The formation of the will is associated with the transition from external modes of action to internal ones.

Volitional action is always purposeful, through this action a person strives to achieve the goal facing him according to a given plan, subordinating his impulses to conscious control and changing the surrounding reality in accordance with his plan. The acting subject, directing an effort to achieve the goal, can evaluate the result of the action, comparing it with the goal to which it was directed. The effectiveness of volitional effort is evaluated by a person through the successful or unsuccessful achievement of the goal.

For the emergence of volitional effort, certain conditions are necessary - the presence of obstacles and barriers. Will manifests itself when difficulties appear on the way to the goal. Situations requiring volitional regulation are diverse: overcoming obstacles, directing action into the future, conflict of motives, conflict between the requirements of social norms and existing desires.

The main functions of the will are: the choice of motives and goals, the regulation of motivation for actions with insufficient or excessive motivation, the organization of mental processes into an adequate system for the activity performed by a person, the mobilization of physical and mental capabilities in overcoming obstacles in achieving goals. Will can be described in terms of "strength" - "weakness".

Psychological analysis of the volitional process is important in deciding the issue of sanity and capacity, in qualifying special conditions that are important for the consideration of criminal and civil cases, including the state of physiological passion, identifying a person’s ability to resist psychological coercion when involved in illegal activities, the ability of a crime victim to resist.

Emotional processes are a mental reaction to internal or external influences, expressed in the restructuring of the rhythm of activity of both the psyche itself and the whole organism. Emotions contain an assessment of the phenomenon, and its private features are not distinguished, emotional response occurs on the event as a whole. Emotions perform a regulatory function - they restructure the activity of the psyche and the body for a prompt response to changing conditions. Activation of the nervous system and, above all, its autonomic division leads to numerous changes in the state of internal organs and the body as a whole. The nature of these changes shows that emotional states cause either the mobilization of organs of action, energy resources and protective processes body, or (in favorable situations) relaxation. So, in case of danger, a person has a feeling of fear, the hormone adrenaline enters the bloodstream, while the vessels of the brain narrow and the vessels of the body expand, providing the muscles with a large amount of oxygen and nutrients. The state of fear prepares the body for decisive action in extreme conditions.

Along with general training organism to action, individual emotional states are accompanied by specific changes in the plasticity of movements, facial expressions, and sound reactions. In evolution, they also developed and became fixed as a means of informing about the emotional state of the individual in intraspecific and interspecific communication. With the increasing role of communication in higher animals, expressive movements become a finely differentiated language, with the help of which individuals exchange information both about their state and about what is happening in the environment. In humans, emotions retain their iconic function - the function of notification. It is thanks to emotions and the changes in external appearance and behavior that they cause that we can judge the internal, psychological state individual.

Emotions are always associated with the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of any important human needs. A positive or negative sign of emotion indicates the possibility of satisfying a need. Positive emotions - joy, pleasure, triumph - report on the right way achievement of the goal, negative ones - pain, anger, fear, disappointment - cause the desire to minimize the influence of objective conditions and are aimed at changing the program of action. Thus, emotions perform a regulatory function, reporting on the correctness or incorrectness of the way to achieve goals.

Emotions perform a motivating function - emotional stress pushes to action. In an attempt to resolve a tense situation, a person shows activity, charged by the potential of the emotional state.

When considering the interaction of emotions and personality development, two factors must be taken into account. The first of them is the influence of heredity on the emotional make-up of a person. Heredity plays an important role in the formation of emotionality, setting the thresholds for experiencing a particular emotion. The second factor of interaction is individual experience and skills of self-control of the emotional sphere.

Emotional processes differ in their modality, or quality. Emotions of fear, anger, sadness, despair, joy, pleasure and others can form complex experiences, for example, emotions of anger, disgust and contempt form a kind of emotional complex of hostility, which can develop into a feeling of hostility underlying aggressive illegal behavior. Emotions can also develop into contradictory, ambivalent states - pain-pleasure, sympathy-disgust, fear-admiration.

Emotions have a certain power, which depends both on the objective circumstances that caused them, and on the individual characteristics of a person, his emotionality. Reaching a certain threshold level, they can get out of the control of consciousness, rendering strong impact on a person's behavior, his mood, thinking, often hindering the performance of professional activities. An extreme form of loss of control over feelings is the development of affective states.

Emotion is a form of mental reflection of the surrounding world in the form of short-term experiences of a person, but, being extended in time, they turn into the new kind mental phenomena - emotional states. Emotional states are holistic, dynamic, relatively stable personal formations that largely determine the originality of a person’s mental life at a certain stage of his life path. Some feelings, emotional states become leading, dominant in the structure of the personality and, as a result, can seriously influence the formation of character. The main experiences of a person, the most frequently experienced emotions, can be fixed in the character.

The pathological manifestation of emotions can take the form of emotional callousness, when emotions are experienced shallowly, superficially, or excessive emotiveness, that is, immersion in emotion and the inability to control it. There are also disorders in which there is a stuck on a certain emotional state - these are the so-called manias and depressions.

Knowledge of the language of emotions and feelings is a professionally important skill of a lawyer. On the one hand, it is expressed in the ability to recognize emotional manifestations, experiences of other persons, to reveal the simulative nature of the feelings and emotions they demonstrate, on the other hand, this ability is manifested in right choice the most expressive forms of response, in demonstrating by a lawyer his emotional state, adequate to a particular communicative situation.

The psychological assessment of the characteristics of the course of the individual's emotional processes in legal practice is important for assessing a person's ability to realize the nature of their actions and manage them, to assess the psychological harm caused to the victim of unlawful actions.

Even though the person is in constant development, and the world around him is changing all the time, the very nature of man and his behavior remain unchanged - they obey the same laws as many centuries ago. That is why the general human psychology is still an object of interest today. huge amount scientists and specialists. General psychology as a science retains its importance and relevance. Fundamentals general psychology Numerous seminars, theoretical and practical courses, workshops and various types of trainings are devoted to it.

In this lesson, you will get acquainted with the subject and method of general psychology, find out what problems, tasks, laws and features of this scientific discipline exist.

Introduction to General Psychology

This is a science that studies how cognitive processes, states, patterns and properties of the human psyche arise and form, and also summarizes various psychological studies, forms psychological knowledge, principles, methods and basic concepts.

The most complete description of these components is given in the sections of general psychology. But, at the same time, individual manifestations of the psyche are not studied by general psychology, as, for example, in sections of special psychology (pedagogical, developmental, etc.).

The main subject of study of general psychology are such forms of mental activity as memory, character, thinking, temperament, perception, motivation, emotions, sensations and other processes, which we will discuss in more detail below. They are considered by this science in close connection with the life and activities of man, as well as with the special characteristics of individual ethnic groups and historical background. Cognitive processes, human personality and its development inside and outside society, interpersonal relationships in different groups of people are subject to detailed study. General psychology is of great importance for such sciences as pedagogy, sociology, philosophy, art criticism, linguistics, etc. And the results of research conducted in the field of general psychology can be considered the starting point for all branches of psychological science.

The theoretical course of general psychology usually includes the study of any specific thematic sections, directions, research, history and problems of this science. A practical course is, as a rule, mastering the methods of research, pedagogical and practical psychological work.

Methods of General Psychology

Like any other science, general psychology uses a system of various methods. The basic methods for obtaining various facts in psychology are considered to be observation, conversation and experiments. Each of these methods can be modified to improve the result.

Observation

Observation This is the most ancient way of knowing. Its simplest form is everyday observations. Every person uses it in their daily life. In general psychology, such types of observation are distinguished as short-term, long-term (it can even take place over several years), selective, continuous and special (included observation, during which the observer is immersed in the group he is studying).

The standard monitoring procedure consists of several steps:

• Setting goals and objectives;
• Definition of the situation, subject and object;
• Determination of methods that will have the least impact on the object under study, and provide the necessary data;
• Determining how data is maintained;
• Processing of received data.

External observation (by an outsider) is considered objective. It can be direct or indirect. There is also self-observation. It can be both immediate - in the current moment, and delayed, based on memories, entries from diaries, memoirs, etc. In this case, the person himself analyzes his thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Observation is an integral part of the other two methods - conversation and experiment.

Conversation

Conversation how psychological method involves direct / indirect, oral / written collection of information about the person being studied and his activities, as a result of which psychological phenomena characteristic of him are determined. There are such types of conversations as collecting information about a person and his life (from the person himself or from people who know him), interviews (a person answers pre-prepared questions), questionnaires and various types of questionnaires (written answers to questions).

Best of all, there is a personal conversation between the researcher and the person being examined. At the same time, it is important to think over the conversation in advance, draw up a plan for it and identify problems that should be identified. During the conversation, questions from the person being examined are also expected. Two-way conversation gives best result and provides more information than just answers to questions.

But the main method of research is experiment.

Experiment

Experiment- this is the active intervention of a specialist in the process of the activity of the subject in order to create certain conditions, in which the psychological fact will be revealed.

There is a laboratory experiment taking place under special conditions using special equipment. All actions of the subject are directed by the instruction. A person knows about the experiment, although he may not guess about its true meaning. Some experiments are carried out repeatedly and on a whole group of people - this allows you to establish important patterns in the development of mental phenomena.

Another method is tests. These are tests that serve to establish any mental qualities in a person. Tests are short-term and similar tasks for all, the results of which determine the presence of certain mental qualities in the subjects and the level of their development. Different tests are designed to make some predictions or make a diagnosis. They must always have a scientific basis, and must also be reliable and reveal accurate characteristics.

Since the genetic principle plays a special role in the methods of psychological research, the genetic method is also distinguished. Its essence is the study of the development of the psyche in order to reveal the general psychological patterns. This method is based on observations and experiments and builds on their results.

In use various methods It is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the problem under study. Therefore, along with the main methods of psychological research, a number of special auxiliary and intermediate methods are often used.

Subject and object of general psychology

Any science is characterized, among other things, by the presence of its subject and object of study. Moreover, the subject and object of science are two different things. The object is only an aspect of the subject of science, which is investigated by the subject, i.e. researcher. Awareness of this fact is very important for understanding the specifics of general psychology as a multifaceted and diverse science. Given this fact, we can say the following.

Object of general psychology- this is the psyche itself, as a form of interaction between living beings and the world, which is expressed in their ability to translate their impulses into reality and function in the world based on the available information. And the human psyche, from the point of view of modern science, performs the function of an intermediary between the subjective and the objective, and also realizes a person's ideas about the external and internal, bodily and spiritual.

The subject of general psychology- these are the laws of the psyche, as a form of human interaction with the outside world. This form, due to its versatility, is subject to research in a completely different aspects, which are investigated by different branches of psychological science. The object is the development of the psyche, norms and pathologies in it, the types of human activities in life, as well as his attitude to the world around him.

Due to the scale of the subject of general psychology and the ability to single out many objects for research in its composition, there are currently general theories psychology, which are guided by different scientific ideals and psychological practice itself, which develops certain psychotechnics to influence consciousness and control it. But no matter how complex the ways in which psychological thought advances, constantly transforming the object of its research and plunging deeper into the subject due to this, no matter what changes and additions it is subject to and no matter what terms it denotes, it is still possible to single out the main blocks of terms, which characterizes the object of psychology. These include:

• mental processes - psychology studies mental phenomena in the process of formation and development, the product of which is the results that take shape in images, thoughts, emotions, etc.;
• mental states - activity, depression, cheerfulness, etc.;
• mental properties of the personality - purposefulness, diligence, temperament, character;
• mental neoplasms - those knowledge, skills and abilities that a person acquires during his life.

Naturally, all mental phenomena cannot exist in isolation, but are closely connected with each other and influence each other. But we can consider each of them separately.

Feel

Feel are mental processes that are mental reflections individual states and properties of the external world that arise when direct impact on the sense organs, subjective perception by a person of external and internal stimuli with the participation of the nervous system. In psychology, sensations are usually understood as the process of reflecting various properties of objects in the surrounding world.

Feelings have the following properties:

• Modality - a qualitative indicator of sensations (for vision - color, saturation, for hearing - loudness, timbre, etc.);
• Intensity - a quantitative indicator of sensations;
• Duration - a temporary indicator of sensations;
• Localization is a spatial indicator.

There are several classifications of sensations. The first one belongs to Aristotle. They identified five basic senses: touch, hearing, sight, taste and smell. But in the 19th century, due to the increase in the types of sensations, the need arose for a more serious classification of them. To date, the following classifications exist:

• Wundt's classification - depending on the mechanical, chemical and physical properties of stimuli;
• Sherrington classification - based on the location of the receptors: exteroceptive, interoceptive and proprioceptive sensations;
• Head's classification - based on origin: protopathic and epicritical sensitivity.

Perception

Perception is a cognitive process that forms a picture of the world in the subject. A mental operation that reflects an object or phenomenon that affects the receptors of the sense organs. Perception is the most complex function that determines the reception and transformation of information and forms the subjective image of the object for the subject. Through attention, the whole object is revealed, its special features and content are distinguished, and a sensual image is formed, i.e. comprehension takes place.

Perception is divided into four levels:

• Detection (perceptual action) - formation of an image;
• Discrimination (perceptual action) - the very perception of the image;
• Identification (identification action) - identification of an object with existing images;
• Identification (identification action) - categorization of an object.

Perception also has its own properties: structure, objectivity, apperception, selectivity, constancy, meaningfulness. Read more about perception.

Attention

Attention is a selective perception of an object. It is expressed in how a person relates to an object. Behind attention can often be such psychological characteristics of a person as need, interest, orientation, attitudes, and others. Attention also determines how a person orients himself in the surrounding world and how this world is reflected in his psyche. The object of attention is always in the center of consciousness, and the rest is perceived more weakly. But the focus of attention tends to change.

The objects of attention are, as a rule, what has the greatest significance for a person at the moment. Holding attention for a long time on an object is called concentration.

Attention functions:

• Detection
• selective attention
• Divided attention

Attention can be arbitrary and involuntary. It varies in form as follows:

• External - directed to the world around;
• Internal - directed to the inner world of a person;
• Motor

Properties of attention: focus, distribution, volume, intensity, concentration, switchability, stability.

All of them are closely related to human activity. And depending on its purpose, they can become more or less intense.

Representation

In the process representation there is a mental recreation of images of phenomena or objects that do not affect this moment to the sense organs. There are two meanings to this concept. The first denotes the image of a phenomenon or object that was perceived earlier, but not perceived now. The second describes the reproduction of images itself. As mental phenomena, representations can be somewhat similar to perception, hallucinations and pseudo-hallucinations, or different from them.

Views are classified in several ways:

• According to the leading analyzers: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and temperature representations;
• According to the degree of generalization - single, general and schematized;
• By origin - based on perception, thinking or imagination;
• According to the degree of volitional efforts - involuntary and arbitrary.

Representations have the following properties: generalization, fragmentation, visibility, instability.

Read more about representation in psychology in this Wikipedia article.

Memory

Memory- this is mental function and a type of mental activity designed to store, accumulate and reproduce information. The ability to store data about the events of the surrounding world and the reactions of the body for a long period of time, and use it.

The following memory processes are distinguished:

• memorization;
• Storage;
• playback;
• Forgetting.

Memory is also divided into typologies:

• By sensory modality - visual, kinesthetic, sound, taste, pain;
• By content - emotional, figurative, motor;
• According to the organization of memorization - procedural, semantic, episodic;
• According to temporal characteristics - ultra-short-term, short-term, long-term;
• By physiological signs- long-term and short-term;
• According to the availability of funds - unmediated and indirect;
• By the presence of a goal - involuntary and arbitrary;
• According to the level of development - verbal-logical, figurative, emotional and motor.

You will find methods and techniques for developing memory in a separate.

Imagination

Imagination- this is the ability of human consciousness to create ideas, representations and images and manage them. It plays a major role in such mental processes as planning, modeling, play, memory and creativity. This is the basis of visual-figurative thinking of a person, which allows you to solve certain problems and understand the situation without practical intervention. Fantasy is a kind of imagination.

There is also a classification of imagination:

• According to the degree of orientation - active and passive imagination;
• According to the results - reproductive and creative imagination;
• By the type of images - abstract and concrete;
• According to the degree of volitional efforts - unintentional and deliberate;
• By methods - typification, schematization, hyperbolization, agglutination.

Imagination mechanisms:

• Typing;
• Accent;
• schematization;
• Agglutination;
• Hyperbole.

Imagination is directly related to creativity. And in finding creative solutions, sensitivity to emerging problems, the ease of combining any things and observation contribute. The characteristics of the imagination can be considered accuracy, originality, flexibility and fluency of thinking.

Read more about imagination in psychology in this article.

In addition, the problems of the development of the imagination are devoted to our website.

Thinking

In general psychology, there are many definitions of the process of thinking. According to one of the most popular definitions:

Thinking- this is the highest stage of human information processing and the process of establishing links between phenomena and objects of the outside world.

It is the highest stage of human cognition, as a process of reflection in his brain of the surrounding reality.

Thinking is divided into:

• Abstract-logical;
• Visual-figurative;
• Specific subject;
• Visually effective.

And the main forms of thinking are:

• Concept - thoughts that single out and generalize phenomena and objects;
• Judgment is the denial or affirmation of something;
• Inference is a conclusion.

These and other components of the thought process are considered in ours.

Speech

speech called a form of communication between people through language constructions. AT this process thoughts are formed and formulated with the help of language, as well as the perception of the received speech information and its understanding. Speech is a form of existence of human language, because speech is language in action.

Language (speech) performs the following functions:

• Intellectual activity tool;
• Way of communication;
• A way of existence, as well as the assimilation and transfer of experience.

Speech - essential part human activity, which contributes to the knowledge of the world, the transfer of knowledge and experience to others. Representing a means of expressing thoughts, it is one of the main mechanisms of human thinking. It depends on the form of communication and, thus, is divided into oral (speaking/listening) and written (writing/reading).

Speech has the following properties:

• Content - the number and significance of the expressed aspirations, feelings and thoughts;
• Clarity - correctness;
• Expressiveness - emotional coloring and richness of the language;
• Effectiveness - the impact on other people, their feelings, thoughts, emotions, etc.

You can read more about oral and written speech in our trainings on and.

Emotions

Emotions- These are mental processes that reflect the attitude of the subject to possible or real situations. Emotions should not be confused with such emotional processes as feelings, affects and moods. To date, emotions have been studied rather poorly and are understood by many experts in different ways. For this reason, the definition given above cannot be considered the only correct one.

The characteristics of emotions are:

• Tone (valence) - positive or negative emotions;
• Intensity - strong or weak emotions;
• Sthenicity - influence on human activity: sthenic (inciting to action) and asthenic (reducing activity);
• Content - reflects different facets of the meaning of the situations that caused emotions.

Emotions in most cases are manifested in physiological reactions, tk. the latter depend on them. But today there is a debate about the fact that intentional physiological states can cause certain emotions.

These and other issues of understanding and managing emotions are discussed in ours.

Will

Will- this is the property of a person to make conscious control of his psyche and actions. The manifestation of the will can be considered the achievement of goals and results. Has many positive qualities influencing human performance. The main volitional qualities are considered to be perseverance, courage, patience, independence, purposefulness, determination, initiative, endurance, courage, self-control and others. The will prompts to action, allows a person to control desires and realize them, develops self-control and strength of character.

Signs of an act of will:

• Efforts of the will in many cases are aimed at overcoming one's weaknesses;
• Performing an action without getting pleasure from this process;
• Having an action plan;
• The effort to do something.

Read more about will in psychology on Wikipedia.

Mental properties and states

Mental properties- these are stable mental phenomena that influence what a person does and give his socio-psychological characteristics. The structure of mental properties includes abilities, character, temperament and orientation.

Orientation is a conglomeration of needs, goals and motives of a person that determine the nature of his activity. It expresses the whole meaning of human actions and his worldview.

Temperament gives characteristics of human activity and behavior. It can manifest itself in hypersensitivity, emotionality, resistance to stress, the ability to adapt to external conditions or lack thereof, etc.

A character is a set of traits and qualities regularly manifested in a person. There are always individual characteristics, but there are also those that are characteristic of all people - purposefulness, initiative, discipline, activity, determination, steadfastness, endurance, courage, will, etc.

Abilities are the mental properties of a person, reflecting its characteristics, which allow a person to successfully engage in certain types activities. Abilities distinguish between special (for a particular type of activity) and general (for most types of activity).

mental states It is a system of psychological characteristics that provide a subjective perception of the world by a person. Mental states have an impact on how mental processes proceed, and being regularly repeated, they can become part of a person's personality - its property.

Mental states are related to each other. But still they can be classified. Most often distinguished:

• Personality states;
• States of consciousness;
• States of intelligence.

Types of mental states are divided according to the following criteria:

• According to the source of formation - due to the situation or personally;
• In terms of severity - superficial and deep;
• By emotional coloring - positive, neutral and negative;
• By duration - short-term, medium-term, long-term;
• According to the degree of awareness - conscious and unconscious;
• According to the level of manifestation - physiological, psychophysiological, psychological.

The following mental states are common to most people:

• Optimal performance;
• tension;
• Interest;
• Inspiration;
• Fatigue;
• monotony;
• Stress;
• Relaxation;
• Awake.

Other common mental states include love, anger, fear, surprise, admiration, depression, detachment, and others.

Read more about mental properties and states on Wikipedia.

Motivation

Motivation is the urge to take action. This process controls human behavior and determines its direction, stability, activity and organization. Through motivation, a person can satisfy his needs.

There are several types of motivation:

• External - due to external conditions;
• Internal - due to internal circumstances (the content of the activity);
• Positive - based on positive incentives;
• Negative - based on negative incentives;
• Sustainable - determined by human needs;
• Unstable - requires additional stimulus.

Motivation is of the following types:

• From something (basic type);
• To something (basic type);
• Individual;
• Group;
• Cognitive.

There are certain motives that in most cases are guided by people:

• Self-affirmation;
• Identification with other people;
• Power;
• Self-development;
• Achieving something;
• public importance;
• The desire to be in the company of certain people;
• negative factors.

Motivation issues are discussed in more detail in this training.

Temperament and character

Temperament is a complex mental characteristics personality associated with its dynamic characteristics (that is, with the pace, rhythm, intensity of individual mental processes and states). The basis of character formation.

There are the following main types of temperament:

• Phlegmatic - signs: emotional stability, perseverance, calmness, regularity;
• Choleric - signs: frequent mood swings, emotionality, imbalance;
• Sanguine - signs: liveliness, mobility, productivity;
• Melancholic - signs: impressionability, vulnerability.

Different types of temperament have different properties that can have a positive or bad influence on a person's personality. Temperament type does not affect abilities, but affects how people manifest themselves in life. Depending on the temperament are:

• Perception, thinking, attention and other mental processes;
• Stability and plasticity of mental phenomena;
• The pace and rhythm of actions;
• Emotions, will and other mental properties;
• Direction of mental activity.

Character is a complex of permanent mental properties of a person that determine her behavior. Character traits form the properties of a person that determine his lifestyle and form of behavior.

Character traits vary by group. There are four in total:

• Attitude towards people - respect, sociability, callousness, etc.;
• Attitude to activity - conscientiousness, diligence, responsibility, etc.;
• Attitude towards oneself - modesty, arrogance, self-criticism, selfishness, etc.;
• Attitude to things - care, accuracy, etc.

Each person has a character inherent only to him, the properties and characteristics of which are determined, for the most part, by social factors. Also, there is always a place to be an accentuation of character - the strengthening of its individual features. It should also be noted that there is a close relationship between character and temperament, because temperament influences the development of any character traits and the manifestation of its features, and at the same time, using some traits of its character, a person, if necessary, can control the manifestations of his temperament.

Read more about the character and temperament in our training.

All of the above, of course, is not comprehensive information about what general human psychology is. This lesson is intended only to give general idea and outline directions for further research.

In order to immerse yourself in the study of general psychology more deeply, you need to arm yourself with the most popular and weighty tools in scientific circles, which are the works of famous authors of textbooks and manuals on psychology. Below is a brief description of some of them.

Maklakov A. G. General psychology. In compiling this textbook, the most modern achievements in the field of psychology and pedagogy were used. On their basis, questions of psychology, mental processes, properties and their states, as well as many other features are considered. The textbook contains illustrations and explanations, as well as a bibliographic reference. Designed for teachers, graduate students and university students.

Rubinshtein S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology. For more than 50 years, this textbook has been considered one of the best psychology textbooks in Russia. It presents and summarizes the achievements of Soviet and world psychological science. The work is intended for teachers, graduate students and university students.

Gippenreiter Yu. B. Introduction to general psychology. This manual presents the basic concepts of psychological science, its methods and problems. The book contains a lot of data on the results of research, examples from fiction and situations from life, as well as a perfect combination of a serious scientific level and an accessible presentation of the material. The work will be of interest to a wide range of readers and people who are just starting to master psychology.

Petrovsky A. V. General psychology. Supplemented and revised edition of General Psychology. The textbook presents the basics of psychological science, as well as summarizes information from many textbooks ("Age and Pedagogical Psychology", "Practical Studies in Psychology", "Collection of Problems in General Psychology"). The book is intended for students who are serious about the study of human psychology.

The role played by general psychology in modern society cannot be overestimated. Today it is necessary to have at least a minimum of psychological knowledge, because general psychology opens the door to the world of a person’s mind and his soul. Any educated person should master the basics of this science of life, because. It is very important to know not only the world around us, but also other people. Thanks to psychological knowledge, you can much more effectively build your relationships with others and organize your personal activities, as well as self-improvement. It is for these reasons that all thinkers of antiquity have always said that a person must first of all know himself.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on a topic this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.

The human psyche is a reflective-regulatory activity that ensures its active interaction with the outside world based on the appropriation of universal human experience

mental processes: sensation, perception, thinking, imagination and memory.

Speaking of mental processes, we distinguish between cognitive and emotional processes, and we can also talk about volitional processes. One and the same process can be and, as a rule, can be intellectual, emotional, and volitional.

1. General concept about feelings
Sensation is a mental process of direct, sensory reflection of the elementary (physical and chemical) properties of reality. Sensation is the sensitivity of a person to the sensory influences of the environment. All complex mental activity of a person is based on sensations.
Feeling is an elementary but basic mental process.

2. Perception
Perception is a direct, sensual reflection of objects and phenomena in a holistic form as a result of awareness of their identifying features.
Perceptual images are built on the basis of various sensations. However, they are not reduced to the simple sum of these sensations. Only by including an object or phenomenon in a certain system, embracing it with an appropriate concept, can we correctly interpret it.

3. Thinking process
Thinking is a mental process of a generalized and indirect reflection of stable, regular properties and relations of reality that are essential for solving cognitive problems, schematic orientation in specific situations.
Thinking forms the structure of individual consciousness, its semantic (conceptual) field, the classification and evaluation standards of the individual, his generalized assessments.

4. Imagination
Imagination is a figurative-informational modeling of reality based on the recombination of memory images. Thanks to the imagination, a person foresees the future and regulates his behavior, creatively transforms reality.
Imagination allows a person to make decisions with a lack of initial information, to form high-probability assumptions in problem situations. Imagination is a person's ability to reconstruct reality, to generate self-images - to create images from oneself.

5. The concept of memory and its classification
Memory is the basis of human abilities, it is a condition for learning, acquiring knowledge, developing skills and abilities. Memory can be defined as the ability to receive, store and reproduce life experience. Man has three types of memory, much more powerful and productive than animals: arbitrary, logical and mediated. The first is associated with a wide volitional control of memorization, the second with the use of logic, the third with the use of various means of memorization, for the most part presented in the form of objects of material and spiritual culture.
The classification of types of memory according to the nature of psychological activity includes: motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical.

Mental processes are individual manifestations of a person's mental activity, (conditionally) isolated as relatively isolated objects of research. Each mental process has a common object of reflection and a single reflective-regulatory specificity.

Mental processes are forms of reflection by the subject of objective reality in the course of the activity of the central nervous system and act as primary regulators of behavior.

Cognitive mental processes include mental processes associated with the perception and processing of information. These include sensation, perception, representation, memory, imagination, thinking, speech, and attention. Thanks to these processes, a person receives information about the world around him and about himself.

Mental processes act as primary regulators of human behavior. Mental processes have a definite beginning, course, and end, i.e., they have certain dynamic characteristics, which primarily include parameters that determine the duration and stability of the mental process. On the basis of mental processes, certain states are formed, knowledge, skills and abilities are formed.

mental processes

mental processes - A stable and purposeful set of interconnected neuropsychic acts that, according to a certain scheme, transform inputs into outputs to obtain specific product, a result of value to the psyche as a whole. If we consider memory as an example of a mental process, then the input here will be the memorized information and the conscious or unconscious need to remember this information, the output is the memorized information.

- Attention,

- memory,

- emotions,

- the senses,

- feeling

- perception,

- thinking,

Mental processes belong to the category of mental phenomena - that is, they are accessible to direct observation, including unskilled ones. In this case, the observer usually reflects not the process itself "in its pure form", but its characteristics, deviations from the norm. Examples:

- the person is attentive / absent-minded, his attention is focused on this or that;

- memory is well developed / poorly developed, one person has a well-developed memory for faces, and the other for words;

- one person is emotionally balanced, and the other is not, one has an emotion of joy, and the other has surprise;

- between some people there is love and harmony, others treat each other with disgust;

- in some periods, someone can be stubborn and persistent, in others - sluggish and apathetic, etc.

In Russian general psychology, three types of mental phenomena are generally distinguished:

- mental processes

- mental states

- mental properties.

The differences between these phenomena are temporary. Mental processes are the most fleeting, properties are the most stable in time.

Recently, the very concept of mental processes has been subjected to justified criticism. Indeed, the allocation of mental processes is a purely conditional division of the psyche into constituent elements. This division is due to the fact that psychology began to claim the title of a full-fledged science in the twentieth century. And in any science one cannot do without analysis, without dividing the object of study into more or less independent units. From this came the classification of mental phenomena, mental processes, etc.

In modern publications, it is increasingly argued that mental processes are closely interrelated. They, strictly speaking, merge into one integral process, which is the psyche. The division of consciousness into mental processes is conditional, it has no theoretical justification. At present, integrative approaches to the psyche are being developed in science, and the classification of mental processes has more of a pedagogical and propaedeutic value, descending as science develops.

Indeed, the relationship between mental processes is very close. It is expressed, for example, in the fact that perception is impossible without memory, memorization is impossible without perception, and attention is impossible without thinking. If, for example, attention develops during psychological training, then memory also develops along with it.

However, it is impossible to completely abandon the concept of a mental process. If only because their essence as mental phenomena is too obvious. It should also be noted that critics of mental processes, for some reason, are convinced that processes in general should be completely independent of each other, "parallel" and not "intersecting". Therefore, they say, mental processes and not processes in general.

As an analogy with mental processes, we can consider social processes. These social processes take place in society: children go to school, athletes prepare for the next Olympics, parents raise children, adults go to work, alcoholics drink alcohol, the police fight crime, etc. There are a lot of these processes, somewhere they intersect, somewhere they go in parallel. One person can participate in many social processes. The fact that we cannot unequivocally and accurately divide the life of society into social processes does not mean at all that they do not exist at all as such.