Empirical studies

Background. The socialization of personality in the modern world occurs on the Internet and social networks, transforming traditional methods of communication on the basis of ethical standards for constructing interpersonal Internet communication. The basic rules are: personal responsibility for actions performed on the network, including illegal actions; respect and equality of partners; confidentiality; copyright protection; and privacy. The relevance of the problem of ethical standards in Internet communication in adolescence is due to its importance for youth and their formation of moral consciousness as a developmental task.

Objective. This study is aimed at identifying attitudes toward ethical standards of Internet communication among youth users with different levels of moral consciousness. Our research goals were: 1) elaboration and testing of the author's technique “Ethical Dilemmas in Internet Communication” (EDI); 2) discovering attitudes towards ethical standards in Internet communication and strategies for resolving ethical dilemmas; and 3) study of the relationship between the level of the moral consciousness of respondents and their orientation toward following the basic ethical standards in Internet communication.

Design. The methods used were the author’s EDI technique, including ethical dilemmas, and the questionnaire "Justice-Care" (S.V. Molchanov). The sample consisted of 61 subjects.

Results. We found an ambiguous attitude by users of the Internet network toward the ethical standards of communication and a differentiated attitude toward following ethical standards. A high level of willingness to follow the norm was identified for copyright protection, but a low one for respecting the inviolability of personal life and taking personal responsibility for actions performed on the network. The strategies for solving ethical dilemmas in Internet communication were clear. The hypothesis about the connection of the level of moral competence and the attitude toward following basic ethical standards in Internet communication was verified.

Background. The transition from the analog economy to the digital one has been accompanied by the digitalization of all spheres of life, in particular the sphere of education, and according to the decree of the government of the Russian Federation, it requires a revision of goals, educational content, and the development of new tools that provide for lifelong learning, as well as the construction of new competency models.

Objective. To carry out a comparative logical-categorical analysis of various models describing digital competencies based on a review of domestic and foreign studies, and determine the content and place of digital competencies in modern competency models.

Design. Critical analysis and synthesis of the literature on the problems of digital competence.

Results. The vector of economic development in the Russian Federation will shift to the development of the knowledge economy over the next 10 years. This transition creates a number of problems: 1) The students are much more savvy than their teachers in the use of digital technologies, as they were immersed in the digital environment from early childhood; and 2) There is no single approach to the definition of the term "digital competence." The first part of this paper presents an analysis of the existing definitions, content, and types of digital competency. The second is a comparison of different models of digital competencies. The third part is about the inconsistency of the results of empirical research on the benefits and harms of digital technology for the mental development of children.

Conclusions. 1. Ubiquitous digitalization creates the need to develop a new competency model for the knowledge economy. 2. The concept of "digital literacy" is included in the concept of "digital competence" on the principle of "part-whole." 3. Science provides more and more evidence of the positive impact of the digital environment on the development of the psyche and human behavior. 4. A systematic approach to the formation of digital competence is needed in the form of specialized educational programs based on generalized instructions (indicative principles of action), taking into account the age characteristics of students.

Background. Digital texts have become widespread in today’s society, both in day-to-day and professional life, as well as in education. Still there is some risk and we cannot realize all the potential outcomes since psychology has not thoroughly explored their use.

Objective. We studied the differences between the effectiveness of reading parallel and consequent texts.

Design. Our sample was 45 adults of ages 18 to 59. We adapted “Similarities,” the “Analytic-Holistic” cognitive style scale, and “Complex analogies” for online use.

Results. We found individual preferences for either parallel or consequent text presentation. The results of the parallel text presentation were worse than those with the consequent, and positively correlated with holistic style and verbal intellect. Success in working with parallelly presented text depends on the individual’s cognitive features and abilities. Parallel reading is a comprehensive cognitive task and requires more cognitive skills and higher intellect than consequent reading.

Background. Virtual reality technologies (VR) allow users to absorb a lot of visual information in a short time and have become an important feature in education. The advisability of using virtual reality as a tool to improve the learning processes in the modern digital environment is an open question. Despite some studies devoted to assessing the effectiveness of virtual reality applications to the education process, there are no clear conclusions on this issue.

Objective. The study of features of foreign language learning material using VR.

Design. 29 young participants (22 females, 7 males) with a high level of foreign language competence were selected. They received three types of stimuli: text, 2D video, and VR. The efficiency of their learning was tested with questions before and after each experiment. VR stimuli were presented by Samsung Gear VR.

Results. It was shown that “VR” and “Text” conditions were the most efficient material for foreign language learning as compared to the “2D-video” condition. The results also showed a strong negative correlation between the participants’ baseline level of knowledge and their knowledge gain under all experimental conditions.

Conclusion. VR offers an effective method for improving the process of learning, but traditional teaching methods still play an important role in education. Young people in the modern world have developed ways to use the VR as an educational tool.

Acknowledgments: The study was supported by the Russian Federal Property Fund grant No. 18-29-22049.

Background. The relevance of this study is associated with the widespread use of social media by adolescents with a high risk of turning to aggression and violence.

Objective. The purpose of the study is to investigate the characteristics of adolescents' perceptions of peer profiles in social networks that vary in degrees of “security,” and their readiness to carry out various communicative actions depending on their psychological characteristics. We hypothesized that: 1) There is a connection between the psychological characteristics of adolescent users of a social network, and their ability to differentiate profiles of peers-users of social networks and communicative actions in social networks; and 2) The oculomotor activity of adolescent users of social networks is associated with the degree of attractiveness of a peer profile.

Design. We used the methods of “Peer attachment” (G. Armden, M.T. Greenberg, 1987 as adapted by G.V. Burmenskaya, 2015); Emotional intelligence (D.V. Lyusin, 2009); Recognition of emotions by sight (S. Baron-Cohen et al., 2001); cognitive methods for assessing social information (S.V. Molchanov et al., 2018); eye-tracking technique; and conversation. The study included 40 adolescents 14 to 17 years old.

Results.We distinguished three groups which differed in their attachment to peers, emotional intelligence, and cognitive methods of processing social information; they comprised three types – “idealizing,” “selective,” and “cautious.” We showed that the "selective type" is characterized by the highest degree of differentiation of "dangerous" and "safe" profiles of peers in social networks, and high selectivity in implementing various communicative actions. The greater attractiveness of the main information in a peer’s profile is reflected in more fixations, fixation time, and returns to the zone. 

Acknowledgments.This work was financially supported by the Russian Federal Property Fund No. 18-013-01080 “Cognitive methods for processing social information from the Internet as a factor in the formation of adolescents' ideas about the moral regulation of relations in the modern information society”.

Background. The widespread use of personal computers in everyday life has led to the need for their use in the programs of children's institutions. However, so far little is known about the impact of the use of personal computers on the cognitive abilities of preschoolers.

Objective. The goal of the study to analyze key empirical data presented in the current scientific literature and to identify the relationship between the use of information technology and the cognitive abilities of preschool children.

Design. We used three tests that, in our opinion, allow us to assess the cognitive abilities of children in this age group: “TV,” “Your vocabulary,” and “Labirint”.

Results. Our results reveal the nature of the relationship between cognitive changes in children and their user activity on a personal digital device (computer) which is firmly established in the life of not only the family, but also a preschool educational organization. As a result of the deep theoretical analysis of the data presented in foreign and domestic literature and electronic sources, we were able to structure a study, the logic of which, along with the use of mathematical statistics, allows us to come to reliable conclusions.

Conclusion. From the perspective of the development of cognitive skills in children of preschool age, the results showed that the time spent at the computer has a positive effect which is cumulative, since it has an impact on test results one year later.

Relevance. In modern medicine, the question of an individual approach to the prevention and treatment of patients with dental diseases becomes relevant. Consideration of the personal characteristics of patients is necessary both for building a successful communication with a doctor and for predicting their adherence to medical recommendations.

Objectives. The study of the relationship of individual-personal characteristics of patients undergoing dental treatment, with a commitment to follow the recommendations of the doctor.

Methods and sampling. The study involved patients who underwent examination and therapeutic treatment in the dental clinic (63 women and 35 men). The study took place in two stages. At the first stage, the level of dental health was measured (by 5 indices) and a psychodiagnostic study was conducted to determine the individual and personal characteristics of patients (type of interpersonal relationships, character accentuation, extraversion / introversion); a questionnaire on attitudes towards dental health, developed by the staff at Pavlov’s University. Patients were given detailed instructions on proper oral hygiene. At the second stage (in a month), dental health indices were re-measured in patients.

Results. Adherence to the implementation of the recommendations of the dentist is associated with such personality characteristics as hyperthymic and demonstrative character traits, altruistic and authoritarian types of behavior in interpersonal relationships and extroversion. Insufficient level of care for dental health and low commitment to follow the recommendations of the dentist are associated with such personality features as anxious, fearful and dysthymic types of character accentuations and introversion.

Conclusion. The ability to predict patient behavior regarding compliance with the recommendations of the dentist based on the diagnosis of the psychological profile of patients opens up prospects for developing personalized prevention programs for each type of patient and introducing case management into the dental practice, in which an individual treatment plan is developed for each patient personal and social characteristics.

Relevance. The results of the interaction of man and the environment are fixed and function in the mind with the help of signs and symbols. The need to study the patterns of mastering the subject content presented in a symbolic form, as well as socialization in general, makes it important to appeal to the fundamental question of the correlation of symbolic function with the structure and work of consciousness.

Objective. This article represents the processual model of consciousness allowing to consider the symbolic function as a moving force of human connection with the surrounding world. The essence of this connection is cognitive. 

Methods. Analysis, synthesis and modeling. The study was carried out in the concept of a semiotic approach.

Results. Social origin of consciousness allows to model its structure. The following components of consciousness can be distinguished: the sensual fabric of an image; biodynamic fabric of the movement and action; meaning; sense.  

The symbolic function should be studied within the concept of the processual model consciousness. Logic of processual model imposes studying of signs and symbols moving from the separate nominal condition through the systemic organization to the reflection.

Conclusions. Consciousness can be studied through the processual model, where the main characteristic of its elements is the interaction and mediation by signs and symbols. The primacy of a sign or symbol is determined by the degree of orientation of the subject in the situation. The transition of a sign into a symbol occurs as a result of the inclusion of a separate sign in an increasing number of sign-symbolic systems. This is possible in the process of personal temporal and spatial inclusion in the general vector of the “chronotope”.

Relevance. Cartoons carry the information about the world, human relations, norms of behavior and values to children, forming a kind of information "zone of the nearest development" of a child in the terminology of L.S. Vygotsky. In a situation of intercultural competition, it is important to understand what symbols, values, meanings, norms of behavior, perceived from domestic and foreign cartoons, can positively and/or negatively transform the process of socialization and development of the child's personality.

Objective. Research of specificity of perception of esthetic and moral characteristics of heroes of domestic and foreign animated films by children of preschool and primary school age. 

Methods. Focus group interview, expert survey, semantic differential.

Sample. 24 kids 4-5 years; 30 pupils of primary school 8-9 years. Kindergarten teachers and teachers of primary school, 10 females 36-50 years.

Results. Foreign cartoons in the perception of children surpass domestic in quality of performance, modernity and attractiveness of the behavioral patterns of the characters, but lose in depth of the topic revelation. For preschoolers, the main carriers of values are the main characters of cartoons. Categories: "mind", "force", “beauty”, "kindness", "danger", "justice" are leadingin assessments of behavior of characters. Children record social distance through the categories of "Senior – Junior" and "Big – Small". Younger pupils do not see the moral background of the behavior of the small character of “Tom and Jerry” cartoon.

Conclusion. The results show that children are able to distinguish cartoon characters by cognitive categories, aesthetic category and also by moral. The content of the information environment, in which children immersed today, can inhibit the development of communication abilities of children and their emotional intelligence.

Relevance. Knowledge of the spontaneous development of learning skills (LS) of University students is important and relevant, because the lack of LS adversely affects the success of independent learning, reducing the level of social and professional mobility of students and their competitiveness in the labor market.

Objective. Determining the dynamics and extent of spontaneous development of basic and additional LS students with an engineering profile in usual side developmental   nature of learning at the University, as well as of their relationship with academic performance.

Methods. For the diagnosis of basic LS specially designed tasks to build knowledge on the material of technical disciplines were used. Additional LS were tested using the author's questionnaire with scaling.  

Sample. 135 students of the 1st, 4th and 6th courses of technical universities of Moscow: 89 boys and 46 girls aged 18 to 33 years.

Results.  During the full 6-year course of study, students of engineering profile showed an increase in the level of basic LS: non-independent knowledge building (+31.25%), independent knowledge building (+12%), mixed knowledge building (+81.96%). The growth of additional skills as conscious work with the cognitive sphere (+2.8%) and with emotional states (+13.33%) was established, but the ability to work with motives and volitional regulation decreased (-8.18%),  as well as to work with knowledge as learning objectives (-16.12%), and to plan the order and time of activities (-10.21%).

Conclusion. It is necessary to take into account the reduced opportunities of students in decoding and generalization in the process of obtaining knowledge from messages with their ambiguity and a large amount of specific content. These types of basic LS need to be purposefully developed. The negative dynamics in the development of a number of additional LS also indicates the need for their special development at the University.

Relevance. The designing of tools to identify a psychological distress in network is one of the most significant challenges of the era of information technology. There are evidences of certain peculiarities of the speech and textual activity of frustrated person. However, for texts in Russian, any tool for monitoring of the intensity of frustration in online content does not currently exist. 

Objective. The purpose of our work is the listing of text features to carry out automatic analysis of the network content for detecting texts of frustrated users.

Methods. The material of the study is a set of posts and comments of 2-10 sentences collected in social networks LiveJournal, Pikabu and Facebook were written by 100 Russian-speaking users aged 27-64 years. The texts were divided as written by unexcited persons (500 texts) and by frustrated persons (500 texts). For automatic text analysis, the "RSA Machine" created in Federal Research Center "Computer Science and Control" of Russian Academy of Sciences was used, which allows to determine 197 text features, to compare texts, and to identify the most important dividing features. Mathematically, the texts were classified using the machine learning.

Results. The Random Forest method with a preliminary binarization procedure revealed the most significant features of text written by frustrated person: the sentiment; the frequency of punctuation, negative word forms and first-person pronouns; the number of semantic roles causative, liquidative and destructive; number of particles, invectives and words from the vocabulary of resistance.

Conclusions. Using the identified features the network texts written by frustrated person can be confidently determined; it is applicable for monitoring in order to ensure information and psychological security.

Relevance. There are set of terms and theories, that describe human`s experience of interaction with the outside world. This leads to difficulties in comparing and analyzing the results of empirical studies of human representations of the world. This phenomenon is clearly manifested in the study of human concepts of the personal computer, actively developed by psychologists and specialists in human-computer interfaces design.

Objective. In this work we pretend to explain the requirements for empirical study of personal computers mental models (MM) structure in the framework of cultural-activity paradigm, based on the analysis of the history of MM research in various areas of cognitive psychology and cultural activity approach.

Results. We discussed the main approaches to the study of mental models in psychology, characteristics of MM and specificity of methods of their study. The concept of MM is compared with similar constructs developed in various areas of psychology: "cognitive map", "scheme", "mental representation", "meaning", "image of the world". We also analyzed the possibility of operationalization of this construct. The MM concept are compared with the A.N. Leontiev`s concept of the «image of the world» and features of the MM researches in cultural activity paradigm was showed. The concept of MM is discussed in the context of different approaches to the study of meanings in linguistics and psychology: the approach of fixed meanings and research of embodied cognition. Finally, we describe the main characteristics of MM, which should be taken into account to plan an empirical study of human representations of personal computers.

Conclusion. In the construction of empirical research of personal computer`s MM we should require special attention to such characteristics of MM, as their consistency, cultural dependency and integrity; methods of such study should take into account the own activity of the subject.

Relevance. Individual’s entire life is accompanied by jealousy, whether or not the individual recognizes the presence of jealousy.The study of jealousy is continued near the half of century while relations between love and jealousy have stayed unclear. The link between jealousy and partnership satisfaction, especially with such important element as a sexual satisfaction, remain unclear also. 

Objective. The clarification of these links, taking into account the dramatic increase of virtual communications between real or potential partners. Our aim was to verify too the construct validity of the Russian and Latvian versions of the new jealousy scale by Dijkstra, Barelds, and Groothof.

Methods. For this reason besides the scale of Dijkstra and his colleagues were used the 45-item scale of Love by Sternberg, the 16-item Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire by Herman, the 25-item Revised Self-Report Jealousy Scale, he Frequency Index of Sexual Satisfaction by Breslav. The sample of the study comprised 75 participants aged 22 to 57 who had stayed in a more or less long-time romantic relationships.

Results. The hypothesis about the correlation between love, satisfaction with partnership relations and sexual satisfaction was confirmed. A significant positive correlation of love and jealousy was also revealed on the 42-item scale used to measure the proneness to reactive jealousy in real and virtual environment.

Conclusion. The correlation between proneness to reactive jealousy, love, and satisfaction with partnership relations found in the study suggests a certain potential of the protective function of this type of jealousy and charges researchers with new tasks in understanding the nature of jealousy and its consequences.

Relevance. In modern psychology, coping is understood as a multicomponent phenomenon. Research conducted using questionnaires allows you to study only one of the components. The proposed simulation puzzle game models the situation of solving group problems and opens up the possibility of observing and research poorly studied aspects, in particular, the ratio of individual and group coping, the dynamics of overcoming a difficult situation.

Objective. The goal is to test a simulation puzzle game as a tool for studying coping with a difficult situation, analyzing the possibilities of a technique for studying human activities to solve difficult life tasks.

Method. A group of 3 people are invited to collect on the proposed silhouette 3 identical figures of 12 elements of pentamino. In the course of the game, a protocol is kept and the video is recorded. At the end of the game is debriefing. The study involved 72 people.

Results. The analysis of signs of a difficult life task in comparison with conditions of game and results of supervision is carried out. A categorical apparatus for content analysis of replicas of participants elaborated.Selected indicators of the coping process: number of proposed solutions, content of replicas, ways of coping, role (individual indicators); time of collecting the puzzle, the emotional background, the implementation of successful initiatives, satisfaction of participants with the game (group indicators). The possibilities of debriefing to analyze the experience of problem solving are described.

Conclusions. Asimulation puzzle game allows you to study the processes of individual and group copying. Using the game model, conditions are created in which the experience of interaction with difficult life situations is reproduced.

Relevance. In connection with the process of aggravation of religious feelings and the growth of religious consciousness due to changes in cultural patterns in modern Russia, it is important to analyze the features of the religious identity of Chechen students, which is one of the forms of self-consciousness, which is at the origins of the formation of other types of social identity of the individual, which determines the specifics of social behavior. 

Objective. To characterize religious identity from the perspective of socio-psychological approach and identify its features in Chechen students.

Methods. Socio-psychological analysis of the concepts of religious identity and Muslim identity; theoretical and empirical analysis of the structure and characteristics of religious identity of Chechen students using the scale of religious orientation of G. Olport and D. Ross, methods of diagnosis of the structure of individual religion And methods of mathematical statistics. Sample. The study was conducted with 60 students of the Chechen state pedagogical University.

Results. The article presents: the definition of religious identity from the perspective of socio-psychological approach, the analysis of the concept of religious Muslim identity. The methods of research of religious identity are designated and the results of diagnostics of the Chechen students are analyzed. It is shown that students are characterized by internal religious orientation, and religion, contributing to the self-identification of young people, performs ideological, epistemological and communicative functions, acting as a model of moral norms of behavior and guidance in values. The results of the study are compared with the data of earlier studies of the religious identity of Chechen students.

Conclusion. Religion is the main value and tool of the identification process of Chechen students, filling its content with religious norms and values, answering important existential questions. Based on religious norms and values, Chechen students motivate their activities in various social spheres.

Relevance. The development of the students’ general study skills is in most cases based on their ability to work with a scientific text, and it needs special examination.

Objective. The goal is to study the strategies the fourth-year students of different departments use to single out the most important information. It is also necessary to explore the criteria which students use to distinguish between the essential and inessential information while reading an explanatory scientific text.

Methods. We have used the method created by Sidelnikova and Malskaya, which constitutes a specially constructed text of an explanatory type including some essential information (the description and explanation of facts) along with some trap sentences, in their formal structure similar to definitions (sentences containing dates, surnames and the statement of the significance of the problem). 1021 fourth-year students of Moscow State University and Moscow Pedagogical University (from the pedagogical, psychological, philological departments and the department of soil science) have taken part in the examination.

Results. Less than 6 % of the students single out the description of the facts and their explanation while reading an explanatory text, which means that they learn the material and control the efficiency of learning in accordance with metacognitive knowledge based on academic conception of the structure of scientific knowledge? More than 94 % choose both the description of the facts and their explanation and the trap sentences, considering the sentences in the form of definitions, historical facts and the statements of the significance of the problem to be essential information. There have been found some statistically significant differences in the choice of the students of different departments.

Conclusion. The results show that the fourth-year students who have taken part in the study do not have academic conception of the structure of scientific knowledge and effective strategies for its mastering.

Relevance. Eye-tracking study of reading is widely used methodology in modern psychology. But there is a lack of such studies in Russian language. Particularly, there are few eye-tracking studies of reading on early stages of acquisition of this skill. 

Objectives. The main aim of our study is to describe process of reading in children 9-10 years old. We compare state of cognitive functions of children and state of their reading skills and try to describe possible strategies for mastering the skill of reading based on indicators of oculomotor activity. 

Methods. 56 third graders participated in the study, mean age – 9.62 years old. The reading skills were assessed using the method “Reading regular and irregular words”. We also record eye-movements of the children during reading the corpus of sentences designed for early schoolchildren. Cognitive functions were assessed by neuropsychological assessment adapted for children of 6–9 years old. 

Results. We separated the sample into two subgroups with relatively low and high state of reading skill and found differences in the state of cognitive functions and in the oculomotor activity of children in these groups. The children with relatively low reading skill often had weaknesses of executive functions, functions of visual-spatial and auditory information processing. They made more fixations and their fixations were longer than children with high state of the reading skill. A qualitative analysis of the reading of two children with dyslexia and two children with selective development of sub-lexical / lexical routes made it possible to describe the features of reading in children with the weakness of the both strategies or one of them.

Conclusion. The results obtained in the study, on the one hand, show a general interrelation between the features of reading mastering and the state of individual cognitive functions of children, and on the other hand, they indicate that there is no rigid determination of the level of reading development by the state of cognitive functions.

Relevance. In psychosomatics, subjective attributions of the causes of the disease are considered as one of the components of illness representation. In somnology, the disfunctional beliefs about illness reasons are considered as a factor in insomnia perpetuation. Study of the characteristics of subjective perceptions of sleep disorders reasons in good sleepers versus sleep disorders, as well as their relationship to well-being, can help to clarify theoretical knowledge about the functions of reasons’ representations in various illnesses.

Objective. The aim was to compare the subjective reasons of sleep disorders in good sleepers, insomnia, parasomnias and sleep apnea, as well as to reveal the relationship between beliefs about the reasons of sleep disorders and anxiety and depression.

Methods. The clinical group consisted of 77 patients with sleep apnea syndrome, 18 patients with parasomnias, 105 patients with chronic insomnia who filled the Checklists of Sleep Quality, Subjective Reasons of Sleep Disorders, Screening for Sleep Apnea, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. In 46 patients with apnea, 15 patients with parasomnias and 93 patients with insomnia, polysomnography was performed over one night. The control group included 102 people, 67 of them with periodic sleep complaints, and 33 without sleep complaints who filled Checklists of Sleep Quality, Subjective Reasons of Sleep Disorders.

Results. Good sleepers are characterized by a wide range of sleep problems’ attributions. In case of complaints for some sleep problems, the focus on emotional causes was enhanced while in case of chronic disorders, the number of reasons was narrowed to those specific for that sleep disorder. In both apnea and insomnia, subjective belief that sleep is disturbed by unpleasant sensations in the arms and legs was especially stressful for participants and was associated with depression and marginally associated with anxiety. Attribution of sleep disorders to life events was associated with a higher level of anxiety, especially in insomnia.

Conclusions. The data supports the hypothesis that some subjective reasons of sleep disorders are associated with psychological distress, regardless of the subjective and objective quality of sleep.

The relevance of the study is the need to clarify what factors can determine the self-esteems of volitional traits of a person.

Objective. The empirical study of the possible influence of action control mode and action and meaningfulness of life level on person's representation  about the development of his volitional traits.

Methods. 943 first-fifth year university students were asked to complete three questionnaires: Self-esteem technique of the volitional traits (V. Ivannikov, E. Aidman), Action control in planning scale (NAKEMP-90) in adaptation of S. Schapkin, Purpose in Life test in adaptation of D. Leontiev.

Results. There was a reliable relationship of the values of action control in planning scale (ACP) and general meaningfulness of life index (MLI) with three volitional traits (strong-willed, confident, bold) and total score of 20 volitional traits (TSVT). The results of 2-way ANOVA showed significant effects of Action Control and Meaningfulness of Life on the value of TSVT. The lowest TSVT values were observed in students with low values of ACP and MLI, and the highest -with high values of these indexes.

Conclusion. The results are discussed in the framework of V.A. Ivannikov’s theoretical ideas about psychological mechanisms of volitional regulation of personality, especially the role of the meaning formation in the process of transferring prompting from motive to purpose. It explains the natural connection of person`s meanings and self-esteems of volitional traits, as well as the contribution of such resource of self-regulation of human activity as action control mode.

Relevance. The article discusses the possibility of a new technique for testing the professional knowledge. This is a technique of "matrix testing" (or semantic scaling). In the introduction, the author introduces a distinctive system of constructs that allows to localize a new technique in the context of a number of traditional (testing method) and non-traditional methods of assessing educational achievements and professional knowledge.

Objective. The author has set the purpose to reveal potential of "semantic scaling" for a quantitative assessment (measurement) of student competence.

Method. The method of semantic scaling was applied by the author to scale sports with the help of special scales-criteria that denote different types of interaction between athletes and motivational regulation of their activities and thus turn the technique into "psychosemantic scaling". The study was conducted on 150 senior students of the faculty of psychology of MSU, who attended a special course of the author on "Psychology of competition".

Results. The main result (the insignificant correlation coefficient between the success of this technique and the total efficiency of students during the course) does not allow to conclude that the main goal is achieved. More interesting were the additional results from the application of this technique, namely: subset of sport species, obtained by cluster analysis, allow us to talk about the "psychological classification" of these species, or at least on the "psychosemantic classification". This classification is much closer to the classical "Olympic classification", but has a number of specific features.

Conclusion. The positive result of the study can be considered a high similarity of the obtained matrices with the reference matrix (ideal model), from which it can be concluded that the technique of "psychosemantic scaling" contributes to the conceptual learning of students-psychologists – their independent work on mastering the system of concepts in this subject area.