Articles

Relevance. The problem of identifying the cerebral mechanisms of internal speech (spoken words or even individual sounds — phonemes) based on the electrical activity of the brain is relevant and significant for a number of practical applications, in particular for improving the construction of brain-computer interfaces.

Target. Electroencephalographic research is aimed at identifying the cerebral mechanisms of internal speech, taking into account the modality of its initialization.

Methodology. In a study on 25 subjects, a 19-channel EEG was recorded in the process of performing three tasks on perception and internal pronunciation of seven phonemes of the Russian language: A, B, F, G, M, R, U, which were presented visually (in the form of letters) and audibly. The analysis of the obtained EEG data was carried out using a new author's method of localizing brain activity “virtually implanted electrode” (developed by A.V. Vartanov), which allows, according to scalp EEG data, to reconstruct electrical activity, the source of which is located in a certain place inside the head (activity was studied in 33 different points of the brain).

Results. The averaged evoked potentials were obtained for all the studied areas of the brain and the functional connections of these structures were revealed in the form of connectivity graphs for the corresponding conditions.

Conclusions. It was found that the processes of pronunciation, expressed in EP, differ depending on the modality of the initial form of the reproduced image — in visual perception, the supromarginal gyrus is more involved. The synchronized activity of a number of cerebral zones providing internal speech was revealed. A special role is played by the activity of the hippocampus and the pallidus (Gl. Palidus). The form of the EP when perceived is in many ways similar to its form when pronouncing. Activation at visual input is almost always significantly higher than at auditory input.

Relevance. The paper is devoted to an extremely relevant in theoretical and practical terms problem of cultural differences in memory organization, which is considered on the example of memorizing plot material by representatives of Russian and Azerbaijani culture.

Methodology and sample. The study involved 60 people, 30 people in each cultural subsample. A specially developed technique of verbal video plot reproduction was used. The narrative was presented without speech and sound accompaniment, which allowed to use identical stimulus material for different cultures.

Results. The results obtained indicate the cultural specificity in memorizing and reproducing plot material. It is shown that significance of social and individual-psychological factors of memory organization changes depending on affiliation to collectivistic or individualistic culture. The representatives of Azerbaijani culture are more likely to include a moral conclusion in the plot, whilst those of Russian culture are more inclined to analyze the motivation of characters.

Conclusion

1.               The representatives of Russian culture are more likely to demonstrate the subjectivity of the reconstructed plot and greater projective freedom of interpretation regarding events and details. This can be explained by the activity of individual cognitive factors in relation to memorization.

2.               The tendency to moral assessments and moralizing in reproduction of a plot is more specific to the representatives of Azerbaijani culture. This trend indicates an active role of social norms and rules in mnemonic processes determination as compared to individual factors (e.g., motivation).

3.               The motivation of characters as the basis of storyline is more peculiar to the representatives of Russian culture compared to the Azerbaijanis. This finding testifies to the greater importance of the individual personal determinants of mnemonic processes for Russians.

The relevance of the study is due to the lack of social experience in a situation of forced self-isolation and the need for a detailed study of its general social and individual consequences.

The research is based on the authors’ concept of situational activity of a person, which considers a person as a social subject who performs activity depending on the specific characteristics of personal-situational interaction regulated by the social context.

The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze the situational activity of a person who has experienced forced self-isolation.

Methods & sample. The study was conducted with the use of the author's inventory “Assessment of situational activity of a person” (АSA). The measurement was carried out twice: in September 2020 and in May 2021. The sample of the first measurement consisted of 130 people: 37 men and 93 women aged 22–39 years. The sample for repeated measurement (30 subjects: 12 men and 18 women) was stratified and selected based on the analysis of the data of the first measurement.

The analysis allowed us to formulate the conclusions:

1. The situation of forced self-isolation is a life difficulty that causes contradictions in the perception of a person's characteristics due to the lack of stable social norms for experiencing such events.

2. The individual evaluation model of forced self-isolation is characterized by high intensity of the physiological component, hypertrophy of the mental component, and disharmony of the reflexive component of situational activity

3. An individual in most cases chooses the strategies of coping and hyper-coping types of situational activity. At the same time, the choice of hyper-coping strategies indicates an extreme mismatch in the processes of personal-situational interaction, which can be considered in some cases as a trend to form undesirable social behaviors.

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the relationship of psychological characteristics (traits of the Big Five, values, cognitive styles) with behavior when contacting telephone scammers pretending to be bank employees. The relevance of the study is associated with an increase in the number of victims of telephone fraud, especially among the elderly, and the need to clarify psychological characteristics that allow to resist manipulative influence.

The aim of the work was to identify the psychological characteristics of people at risk of telephone fraud and prone to manipulative influences. The research is based on the hypothesis that such characteristics are revealed as “Cooperation” and “Conscientiousness” on the “Big Five”, as well as the style of thinking “naive optimism” and security values.

The study involved respondents aged 50+ (N = 70, 26 of them were men, the average age was 61 years). The following questionnaires were used: an abbreviated version of the “NEO-FFI” questionnaire “NEO PI-R” by P. Costa and R. McRae; “Portrait value Questionnaire by Sh. Schwartz — Revised PVQ-R”; CTI Constructive Thinking Inventory, by Epstein. In order to find out whether the respondents had encountered fraudsters, what feelings it had caused and what actions would be taken when contacting “imaginary” bank employees by phone, the authors developed a questionnaire.

According to the results obtained, respondents who constitute a risk group exposed to the manipulative influence of fraudsters were identified. People aged 50+ with pronounced security values, naive optimistic way of thinking, high self-control, who put the interests of the group above their own, inclined to cooperate, make up a group at risk of being manipulated by telephone scammers.

Objective. Knowledge, expectations and fears about chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer, affecting the subjective well-being and emotional condition of patients, may indirectly affect treatment satisfaction and complaints of side effects.

The aim was to compare treatment representations in patients referred to radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and to identify its relationship with health anxiety and subjective well-being.

Methods and participants. 53 patients referred to radiation therapy and 63 patients referred to chemotherapy completed the Scale of Treatment Representation in Oncological Diseases, Illness and Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life Scale and Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences.

Results. According to the results, the key difficulties with regard to radiation therapy in patients are a lack of understanding of treatment process and a general concern about the need for it. Compared to radiation therapy, with chemotherapy, patients tend to be more doubtful about the effectiveness of treatment and more anxious about the need for it. Moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that lack of understanding, doubts about the effectiveness and anxiety about radiation and chemotherapy are associated with subjective ill-being indirectly - through a higher level of health anxiety.

Conclusions. Feelings of helplessness with regard to treatment mediated the relationship between doubts and confidence about treatment effectiveness and well-being in both groups. With radiation therapy, confidence in the need for treatment was indirectly associated with better well-being - through lower health anxiety.

Relevance. In 2020 along with regular stress related to final examinations, school graduates faced additional difficulties due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions. Specifically, this stress could manifest itself in increased anxiety, depressive symptoms, and other signs of the low level of psychological well-being.

The study aimed to compare anxiety and depression levels in school graduates and 9–10 graders and to analyze the role uncertainty coping patterns play in their psychological well-being.

Method. The following questionnaires were used: The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire in Russian adaptation by Kornilova; The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) adapted by Adryushchenko, Drobizhev, Dobrovolskiy, and our original survey “Applicants` main fears”. The study sample included 170 participants aged 16–18 from different Russian cities and towns. Among them, 96 were school graduates planning to apply for university, and 74 were students of 9 and 10 grades. The research was conducted online with the use of Google-forms. Participation was completely voluntary and anonymous.

Results: The study showed that anxiety and depression symptoms were impacted by the preference towards uncertainty coping patterns. Vigilance as a coping pattern led to lower levels of anxiety and depression in both groups. There were no significant differences in anxiety and depression between graduates and 9–10 graders.

Conclusions: Preferred uncertainty coping patterns can impact the psychological well-being of graduate and undergraduate school students.

Relevance. Children’s safe behaviour is one of the conditions for keeping them safe and sound, healthy and socially integrated, as this is the top-priority objective of the contemporary society. Teenagers are one of the most vulnerable age groups. They are frequently endangered because they show higher rates of careless behaviour. Teenagers with impaired intellectual development having this behavioural tendency cause a lot of concern in both their parents and the entire community.

Objective. The research is aimed at studying safe behaviour in teenagers with unimpaired and impaired intelligenge. The research aims to define peculiarities and differences in these teenage groups in situations that appear threatening to their lives, heath or social well-being.

Methodology. The study involved 109 parents of teenagers aged 12–15. 46 parents are parents of children with unimpaired intellectual development (19 girls and 27 boys). 63 parents had teenage children with impaired intellectual development (35 boys and 28 girls). A questionnaire was offered.

Results. The researchers arranged a poll among the parents and obtained data on how safe behaviour is formed in teenagers with impaired intellectual development compared to their peers with unimpaired intelligence. The findings show difference in behavioural patterns of teenagers with impaired and unimpaired intelligence in such situations as crossing a street, handling electric appliances and sharp cutting tools, acting during outdoor leisure and using gadgets. Additionally, the study defined gender differences in teenage boys’ and girls’ behavioural patterns when facing dangerous dogs, arguing or fighting and even during outdoor leisure.

Conclusions. The findings reveal the justification basis for different approaches to how to form the culture of safe behaviour in teenagers, if they have or do not have impaired intellectual development or if they belong to different sexes.

Relevance. In the study, we discuss the neuropsychological measures and relationship of two important groups of cognitive functions, namely, executive functions and functions of activation regulation. The study of the structure of these functions and the possibility of assessing their state in children of preschool and primary school age by methods of neuropsychological diagnostics and computerized testing are important from two points of view. First, it is an important issue in neuropsychological practice. Second, it is one of the ways to better understand cognitive development at this age.

Objectives. Development and estimation of factor models that establish the relationship between the results of neuropsychological diagnostics and various groups of cognitive functions associated with executive functions and regulation of activation. Methods. 434 children from 6 to 9 years old (from senior preschoolers to third graders) participated in the study. All children underwent neuropsychological examination adapted for children of 6–9 years, and they also performed tests from a computerized neuropsychological examination battery for children of 6–9 years. The results were used to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis.

Results and conclusions. We proposed models that include three factors. The first factor corresponds to executive functions and two others relate to the regulation of activation. According to our model, the functions of activation can be divided into two factors: a factor of hyperactivity/impulsivity and a factor of fatigue/sluggishness. Model fit indices showed good agreement with empirical data. The combined use of indicators of both traditional and computer neuropsychological examination makes the estimations of the model better. Thus, in the study we revealed parameters of the performance on the neuropsychological tests that can be used as indicators of the state of executive functions and functions of activation regulation. The weakness in one of the components of activity regulation can lead to specific patterns of behavior which are manifested in the neuropsychological examination. A more serious and extensive deficit of one of the functions can lead to the appearance either of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or of sluggish cognitive tempo.

Paper is devoted to the basic postulates of ecological theory (U. Bronfenbrenner). Survey of empirical studies conducted in the context of ecological approach in the field of sport psychology is presented in this work. It indicates on advisability to combine positions of ecological approach with objective diagnostic methods of sportsmen’s professional skills. The conclusion is that approach could be used in the solving problems that face sportsmen, their parents, coaches and sport psychologists.M

The authors represent a diagnostic method, testing ways of interpersonal cognition. They describe an attempt to study the ways of interpersonal perception at adolescents of 14—15 years old. Respondents’ ways of interpersonal cognition were correlated with their school advancement and data of tests on intellect, anxiety and sociometry choice. It was shown that the method, described at this article, has a differentiating strength and it can be used for studying personality development in further researches.

The present paper discusses contemporary problems and approaches to the development of assessments in domains of educational psychology and psychology of abilities. We briefly report the results of the development and the adaptation of two assessment batteries based on R. Sternberg’s theory of successful intelligence. The paper shows that a cross-cultural adaptation of contemporary foreign assessments is a productive approach.

In article are described main results of the study cognitive and behavior predictors of treatment motivation beside 150 women with alcohol addiction are described. 3 level-groups were chosen: with negative, with ambitendent-ambivalent-unstable and with positive levels of treatment motivation. For each level-group of treatment motivation typical determined particularities cognitive and behavior predictors of treatment motivation: the recognition of disease, the ambitendent-ambivalent relation to disease, the general self-efficacy, the alcohol abstinence self-efficacy, coping- strategy and the persistence in achievement of the purpose of treatment activities are revealed. These predictors can be targets of psychotherapy of the women with alcohol addiction.

The article presents the results of a case study of visual agnosia. A rare case of multiple visual agnosia (object agnosia, prosopagnosia, dyslexia, color agonsia) of a patient with the bilateral damage of the brain is described. A set of various methods has been developed to diagnose the variety of cognitive disorders. A neuropsychological approach has been used to qualitatively analyze errors. Some particular features of visual cognitive disorder are considered from the point of view of the dynamic complementary interaction between the brain hemispheres and their functional asymmetry.

The article shows the role of the attachment system (child-mother interactions) in development of a wide spectrum of individual personality characteristics. Emo tional attachment of the child to mother is considered as a complicated system of internal regulation and a basis of typology of mental development. Results of a series of empirical studies show the connection between the type of attachment, formed at the early stages of child development, and characteristics of his/her au tonomy, self-concept, self-esteem and empathy in preschool and middle childhood.