Boyko, Lyubov A.

Relevance. The COVID-19 pandemic reveals the problem of moral choices for a large number of people: who should be treated first; who can be considered as a subject for urgent vaccines and drugs testing; choice between personal convenience and observation of restrictions for the sake of the “common good.” 

The objective of the study was to evaluate whether the stress experienced by people during the COVID-19 pandemic can change moral decision making. 

Materials and methods. The data of an online survey conducted from March 30 to May 31 (311 people) were analyzed. The survey included sociodemographic questions, questions about assessing one’s current condition, the Simptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and the Moral Dilemmas Test, consisting of 30 dilemmas. 

The relationship of a number of utilitarian choices in personal moral dilemmas with sociodemographic characteristics, respondents' assessments of their state and psychopathological characteristics was analyzed. Solving personal moral dilemmas was considered within subgroups of respondents with a high level of somatization and a high level of psychopathological symptoms and it was reviewed separately. 

Results. The results showed a high level of distress throughout the survey and an increase of utilitarian choices in personal moral dilemmas by the end of the survey. The number of choices in personal dilemmas was lower among older respondents, higher among men, and positively correlated with psychopathological symptoms. In the subgroup with a high level of somatization, personal choices slightly decreased by the end of the survey. On the contrary, in the subgroup with high levels of psychopathological symptoms, the number of personal choices significantly increased. 

Conclusions. Against the background of quarantine, assessments of moral standards change. The level of stress ambiguously affects moral decisions. A high level of somatization leads to a decrease in utilitarian personal choices, and a higher level of psychopathological symptoms leads to an increase in utilitarianшchoices. Utilitarian personal choices are more often made by men and younger people. 

Relevance. The musical activity of a professional pianist has been little studied by objective methods. For most musicians, the task of sight-reading causes a difficulty in both academic and professional activities. Understanding the visual-motor mechanisms and cognitive processes involved in the implementation of sight-reading can help musical pedagogical practice. There are few sight-reading studies and most of them were conducted in conditions far from the real ones. This work is interdisciplinary that involved the interests of musical pedagogy, psychology and physiology.

Objective. On the base of the cognitive task of sight-reading music in conditions close to reality to explore the interaction of visual-motor parameters and their relationship with the parameters of the working memory.

Methods. 55 subjects aged 18–25 years (30 pianists and 25 non-pianists) were tested using the OS and N-back method to determine individual parameters of the working memory, as well as to determine the time of a complex visual-motor response. Eye tracking method was utilized for eye movement recording when the pianists sight read sheet of notes.

Results.The visual-motor performance parameters (eye hand span, errors and regressions) differ significantly at sight-reading musical fragments of varying complexity. Compared with the literature data we obtained opposite results for value of the eye hand span depending on the complexity of the musical text. We revealed correlations between the visual-motor parameters and the working memory parameters as well as their dependence on the quality of performance.

Conclusion. Objectively recorded visual-motor parameters complexly interact with each other. The mastery of sight-reading music of professional pianists closely related with individual parameters of the working memory.