The article reconstructs the stages of O.K. Tikhomirov’s scientific work. The main attention is paid to programs of studies of human thinking activity. The substance of the personal meanings theory of thinking is exposed. The contribution of O.K. Tikhomirov’s school to the development of A.N. Leontiev’s psychological activity theory is defined.

The contribution of the O.K. Tikhomirov’s school in the field of psychology of thinking is analyzed, and the main elements of the personal meanings theory of thinking are presented: namely, personalityrelated determination of thinking, regulative function of emotions, actual genesis of goalsetting and senseformation processes, creative thinking, and the impact of information technologies on the transformations of intellectual and communicative activities.

In the article is submitted the comparative analysis of the problem of understanding and research of the creative thinking, describing three approaches: the personal meanings theory of thinking (O.K. Tikhomirov), the theory of problem situations (A.M. Matjushkin), approach of Ya.A. Ponomarev. The affinity of maintenance of these theories is shown in aspect of statement of researching questions to study the creative thinking and their decisions.

Development of psychology of computerization, initiated by O.K. Tikhomirov, is traced and analyzed. The psychology of computerization deals with the specifics of the impact of computers on transformation of psychic processes and functions, as well as with the Artificial Intelligence models and concepts being compared to human thinking processes. This field of research is an essential component of the personal meanings theory of thinking, was also originated by O.K. Tikhomirov. The paper states that the current stage of the psychology of computerization is characterized by the studies of the modern information technologies’ impact on the sociocultural transformations in their psychological aspects. The paper contains the developing nomenclature of research problems have been investigated within the period of over two decades, and the perspective to give an adequate term to this field of research.

In this article there are demonstrated actual and potential possibilities of the notional apparatus of the concept of jointdialogic cognitive activity, which was developed basing on the personal meanings theory of thinking. The results of employment of the method of experimental diagnostic modeling of virtual monoethnical groups in conditions of research of ethnopsychological phenomena