Higher nervous activity of a person
Higher nervous activity- This is the activity of the higher parts of the central nervous system, providing the most perfect adaptation of animals and humans to the environment. Higher nervous activity includes gnosis (cognition), praxis (action), speech, memory and thinking, consciousness, etc. The behavior of the organism is the crown of the result of the highest nervous activity.
This characteristic manifests itself in the production of certain types of errors called "missed" and slips, which are well described by analysts. These are errors that correspond to the case when the subject has set the correct goal for his action, but does not cope with the achievement of this goal, allowing the action planned by automatism to be fixed. This is the case when a traveler, accustomed to going to work every day, and who, one fine day, has to go to a meeting somewhere else, finds himself at his place of work, as if automatism had captured the projected action of the driver.
The structural basis of higher nervous activity in humans is the cerebral cortex together with the subcortical formations of the forebrain and diencephalon.
The term "higher nervous activity" was introduced into science by P. Pavlov, who creatively developed and expanded the theoretical provisions on the reflex principle of brain activity and created the doctrine of the physiology of higher nervous activity in animals and humans.
The naming time is lengthened in this case of interference and errors may even occur. Results obtained in situations of the same type lead us to think that the automatism set in motion by reading a word is inadvertently triggered and interferes with the purpose of color designation. Wallon has already noted that consciousness sometimes no longer has processes whose terms have a representative value, but have lost it.
This applies to automatic movements. We will not dwell on this property, which will be considered when it comes to skills. Also mentioned various properties which are directly related to the lack of mental stress: the main one is undoubtedly resistance to anxiety factors such as speed limits and interfering tasks. This property was used to test the degree of automatism presented by the task: this degree is assessed by the sensitivity of the activity being studied to speed limits or to anxiety tasks that can be added to it.
Concept of T. v. n. was introduced to science by I.P. Pavlov. Initially, it was interpreted as a "picture of behavior" of an animal, later it began to be considered as the result of a certain combination of the properties of the nervous system identified by Pavlov - strength, mobility and balance. On this basis, he identified four main T. in. n / a:
1) strong, unbalanced, or "unrestrained";
Old ergonomic studies of stereotypes and compatibility provide many examples. When automation is interrupted, it is unlikely to be pursued and needs to be restarted early in order to complete it. For example, if someone is interrupted in recollection of a previously studied poem, they are often forced to start reading the entire poem again. Likewise, as the same author notes, autonomy does not mean that an automatic process is not tightly controlled, which can be seen as proof that automation can be quickly blocked when an error occurs in their process. unwind.
2) strong, balanced, inert, or slow;
3) strong, balanced, agile or lively;
4) weak. In accordance with these types, four temperaments were set, described in antiquity:
1) choleric,
2) phlegmatic,
3) sanguine,
4) melancholic. Allocated in animal studies T. century. n. D. Pavlov considered common in humans and animals. In addition, he proposed a classification of specifically human T. century. n. based on the ratio of two signaling systems:
The latter property may be related to the difficulty of changing an automated process by subtracting some parts or replacing them with others. Then it is necessary to resort to new prolonged learning, for which primitive automatism usually appears. Whether it triggers or controls an activity, automation often takes into account a summary model of all the conditions in which a task is performed. It retains only sufficient features under normal circumstances. This ignorance of other traits is a source of savings, but it can also be unfortunate when the absence or modification of one of these forgotten traits invalidates the action in force.
1) artistic (predominance of the first signaling system);
2) mental (predominance of the second signal system);
3) average.
TYPES OF HIGHER NERVOUS ACTIVITY.
The type of higher nervous activity should be understood as the totality of the properties of nervous processes due to the hereditary characteristics of a given organism and acquired in the process of individual life.
Many of them are part of such a mechanism. This relative blindness to the environment is one of the sources of the lack of adaptability associated with automation. However, the assertion of this property is ambiguous, since it can also be said that automation was very related to the environment in the sense that when they are carried out in very stable conditions, they lead to criticism of features of the task or environment that are not relevant to it. enforceability: for example, an operator would use one product instead of another because their usual seat was canceled.
The division of the nervous system into types was based on IP Pavlov's three properties of nervous processes: strength, balance and mobility (excitation and inhibition).
Under the power of nervous processes understand the ability of cerebral cortex cells to maintain adequate responses to strong and superstrong stimuli.
Under poise it should be understood that the intensity of the processes of excitation and inhibition is the same. Mobility of nervous processes characterizes the rapidity of the transition of the process of excitation to inhibition and vice versa.
By all accounts, these ancient works were organized, which can only be briefly reviewed here. Ravaisson is the first author who comes to mind with his book entitled Out of Habit. The human being has the dimension of habit. A person accepts habits, chooses habits, is structured according to habit: he wins, but on the other hand, he loses, there is a risk of numbness in the routine. Ravaisson's text is enough to surprise the psychologist of our time with its language and the philosophical context in which it is written, but it reveals the essential features of what we now call automatism.
Based on the study of the characteristics of nervous processes, I.P. Pavlov identified the following main types of the nervous system: two extreme and one central type. The extreme types are strong unbalanced and weak inhibitory.
Strong unbalanced type. It is characterized by strong unbalanced and mobile nervous processes. In such animals, the process of excitement prevails over inhibition, their behavior is aggressive (unrestrained type).
Thus, he declares that not only then are those movements that habit gradually departs from the will, do not leave this sphere of the intellect in order to pass under the influence of a blind mechanism; but they do not come from the same intelligent activity in which they were born. This idea that the habit does not go out of the realm of the intellect evokes this text by Merleau-Ponty: “Should we introduce into the habit an act of understanding that would organize elements for it? leave then? " Admittedly, Ravaisson will not exploit the consequences of Merleau-Ponty, but his remark that a habit is not disconnected from any kind of control over activity is important and will be addressed in Ravaisson's part also brings original ideas that will be again in the next century.
Weak braking type. It is characterized by weak unbalanced nervous processes. In these animals, the process of inhibition prevails, they are cowardly, getting into an unfamiliar environment; tucking in their tail, huddled in a corner.
Central type strong and balanced nervous processes are characteristic, but depending on their mobility it is divided into two groups: strong balanced mobile and strong balanced inert types.
In the reflection that passes and that measures the distances of opposites, the environment of opposites, immediate intelligence succeeds when nothing separates the object from thought. Here we find ideas to enlighten reflection on automatisms.
If, as Ravaisson emphasizes, habits are acquired by “succession of imperceptible degrees,” they no longer differ from the extended notion of automatism, which does not identify them with the ultimate and completely stereotyped form of action. For this author, psychological automatism is "an activity that seeks to preserve and repeat": it opposes "that activity that synthesizes, that organizes the phenomena of the present." These actions depend on each other, but they are limited and mutually corrected, and this is only a decrease in the current activity of synthesis, a weakening marked by all kinds of symptoms, which makes it possible to exaggerate the development of the old automatism.
Strong balanced movable type. The nervous processes in such animals are strong, balanced and mobile. Excitation is easily replaced by inhibition and vice versa. They are affectionate, inquisitive, interested in everyone (living type).
Strong balanced inert type. This type of animal is distinguished by strong, balanced, but sedentary nervous processes (calm type). The processes of excitation and especially inhibition are replaced slowly. They are inert, sedentary animals. There are transitional, intermediate types between these main types of the nervous system.
Janet's research perspective is psychopathological or even medical, because automatism manifests itself clearly and exaggeratedly, as in pathological conditions... Undoubtedly, an interesting line of research concerns the study of neurological support for automatism, but which will not be discussed here.
Habit was defined there, in contrast to instinct, as a way of being - to act, feel or think-to acquire, it should be added that this acquisition is associated with the repetition of actions that have been performed or done by the one who acquires this habit. Guillaume emphasizes in this connection the ambiguity of the concept of repetition. There is a contradiction between the idea of repetition, in the strict sense of repeating the same action, and the idea of acquiring a new way of acting. If we always repeated the same action, there would be no change, we would never know anything.
The basic properties of nervous processes are inherited. The set of all genes inherent in a given individual are called genotype. In the process of individual life, under the influence of the environment, the genotype undergoes certain changes, as a result of which phenotype- a set of all properties and characteristics of an individual at a certain stage of development. Consequently, the behavior of animals and humans in the environment is determined not only by the inherited properties of the nervous system, but also by the influences of the external environment (education, training, etc.). When determining the types of higher nervous activity in humans, it is necessary to take into account the relationship between the first and second signaling systems. Based on these provisions, I.P. Pavlov singled out four main types, using the terminology of Hippocrates for their designation: melancholic, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic.
This is because we don't just reproduce, we learn, we progress, we adapt. Guillaume's book, and then the psychology of learning, should have emphasized this point of view. For example, the acquisition of the speed of execution, which often signifies an important property of automatism, does not come from the identical reproduction of an action, which will change only in its tempo, but this acquisition is obtained from the reorganization of the action. Only after a certain number of repetitions the action has stabilized and the repetition seems to be real.
Choleric- strong, unbalanced type. The processes of inhibition and excitation in the cerebral cortex in such people are characterized by strength, mobility and imbalance, excitement prevails. These are very energetic people, but excitable and quick-tempered.
Melancholic- weak type. Nervous processes are unbalanced, inactive, the process of inhibition prevails. The melancholic sees and expects only the bad and the dangerous in everything.
The confusion is easily established between the actual repetitions of the learned act and the pseudo-repetitions that studied it. What remains constant between these different actions is "the unity of intention and meaning." It can be argued that habit, in Guillaume's sense, tends to be automatic as it stabilizes. Guillaume also addresses the problem of the relationship between automatisms in the passages that he devotes to interventions in habits: “The reaction of habits to each other is manifested not only in transmission, ie. beneficial effects, but also side effects, by means of prohibitions ".
Sanguine- strong, balanced and agile type. Nervous processes in the cerebral cortex are characterized by great strength, balance and mobility. Such people are cheerful and efficient.
Phlegmatic person- strong and balanced inert type. Nervous processes are strong, balanced, but inactive. Such people are even, calm, persistent and stubborn workers.
He distinguishes between two types of inhibitions: retroactive inhibition, when the acquisition of a new automatism violates or worsens the already built one, with which he intervenes, and active inhibition, when the presence of automatism is an obstacle to the acquisition of a new one. Finally, from this rich book by Guillaume, one can see the criticism that he considers in this characterization that the "classic" attributes habit as "the tendency to make an ordinary action a necessity of this action." He notes that "it is very doubtful that any habit creates a need", and he justifies this - this applies equally to automatisms, noting that a person can know how to act without feeling the need: "we do not suffer to do this if you have no reason for that. "
Taking into account the peculiarities of the interaction of the first and second signaling systems, I.P. Pavlov additionally identified three true human types.
Artistic type. In people of this group, according to the degree of development, the first signal system prevails over the second; in the process of thinking, they widely use sensory images of the surrounding reality. Very often they are artists, writers, musicians.
Development and classification of automation
Automations are not immediately created, and their development depends on a certain number of conditions that are useful to know in order to better understand and control this development: we will consider some of them. We then propose a principle for classifying automatism based on the characteristics of the task in which they correspond. The two topics in this section are intended to help you better understand the challenges of managing automation and using it correctly.
The constitution and evolution of automation
This is an unintended way of acquiring: we learn without intending to do so. Thus, multiple automatics were acquired, which interrupted daily life: those who participate in food, when opening the door, often participate in locomotion, as if it were in the place of residence. work or return, etc. - Mode of data collection with a purpose more or less clearly defined and focused on a specific task. This applies to the automatism acquired in the work situation, based on observations or advice from colleagues: he often responds to recommendations "do as I do".
Thinking type. In persons belonging to this group, the second signaling system significantly prevails over the first, they are inclined to abstract, abstract thinking and are often mathematicians and philosophers by profession.
Medium type. It is characterized by the same value of the first and second signaling systems in the higher nervous activity of a person. Most people belong to this group.
This is in many cases the master's acquisition method. It can also be associated with trial and error data collection. - The capture mode is clearly controlled. Its most typical example- school and professional trainings. The acquisition builds on the knowledge and assistance provided to operators and is accompanied by the systematic exercises required to move towards automation.
The essential role of practice
This part will look at some of the mechanisms that were highlighted in the constitution of automatism. We all expect improvement with practice to be ubiquitous, although there are, of course, limits in its scope and scope. Consider only laboratory experiments: we do not expect people to perform an experimental task properly, because at least, to an extent; and we perceive all our psychological experiences with an eye to the disturbing influence of the effects of practice.
First and second signaling systems
The types of GNI discussed above are common to animals and humans. It is possible to single out special typological features inherent only in humans. According to I.P. Pavlov, they are based on the degree of development of the first and second signaling systems. The first signaling system- these are visual, auditory and other sensory signals from which images of the external world are built.
Perception of direct signals of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world and signals from internal environment organism, coming from visual, auditory, tactile and other receptors, constitutes the first signaling system that exists in animals and humans. Separate elements of a more complex signaling system begin to appear in social species of animals (highly organized mammals and birds), which use sounds (signal codes) to warn of danger, that a given territory is occupied, etc.
But only a person in the process of work and social life develops second signaling system- verbal, in which a word as a conditioned stimulus, a sign that does not have real physical content, but is a symbol of objects and phenomena of the material world, becomes a strong stimulus. This signaling system consists of the perception of words - heard, spoken (aloud or silently) and visible (when reading and writing). One and the same phenomenon, an object in different languages is indicated by words that have different sounds and spellings, abstract concepts are created from these verbal (verbal) signals.
The ability to understand and then pronounce words arises in a child as a result of the association of certain sounds (words) with visual, tactile and other impressions of external objects. A subjective image appears in the brain on the basis of neural mechanisms when decoding information and comparing it with real-life material objects. With the emergence and development of the second signal system, it becomes possible to implement an abstract form of reflection - the formation of concepts and representations.
Stimuli of the second signal system reflect the surrounding reality with the help of generalizing, abstractive concepts expressed in words. A person can operate not only with images, but also with thoughts associated with them, meaningful images containing semantic (semantic) information. With the help of the word, a transition is made from the sensory image of the first signal system to the concept, the representation of the second signal system. The ability to operate with abstract concepts, expressed in words, serving as the basis of mental activity.
The concept of higher nervous activity
Higher nervous activity is a complex form of life that provides individual behavioral adaptation of humans and higher animals to changing environmental conditions. The concept of higher nervous activity was introduced by the great Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov in connection with the discovery of the conditioned reflex as a new, previously unknown form of nervous activity.
I.P. Pavlov contrasted the concept of "higher" nervous activity with the concept of "lower" nervous activity, aimed mainly at maintaining the homeostasis of the organism in the process of its vital activity. At the same time, the nerve elements that interact within the body are united by nerve connections by the time of birth. And, conversely, the nerve connections that provide higher nervous activity are realized in the process of vital activity of the organism in the form of life experience. Therefore, the lower nervous activity can be defined as a congenital form, and the higher nervous activity - as acquired in the individual life of a person or animal.
The origins of the opposition between the higher and lower forms of nervous activity go back to the ideas of the ancient Greek thinker Socrates about the existence of a “lower form of the soul” in animals, which differs from the human soul and possesses “mental power”. For many centuries, the idea of the "soul" of a person and the unknowability of his mental activity remained inseparable in the minds of people. Only in the 19th century. in the works of the Russian scientist, the founder of modern physiology I.M. Sechenov, the reflex nature of the activity of the brain was revealed. In his book Reflexes of the Brain, published in 1863, he was the first to attempt an objective study of mental processes. The ideas of I.M. Sechenov was brilliantly developed by I.P. Pavlov. Based on the method of conditioned reflexes developed by him, he showed the ways and possibilities of experimental study of the cerebral cortex, which plays a key role in complex processes. mental activity... The main processes dynamically replacing each other in the central nervous system are the processes of excitation and inhibition. Controlling influences of the cortex are built depending on their ratio, strength and localization. The functional unit of higher nervous activity is a conditioned reflex.
In humans, the cerebral cortex plays the role of "steward and distributor" of all vital functions(I.P. Pavlov). This is due to the fact that in the course of phylogenetic development, a process of corticalization of functions occurs. It is expressed in the increasing subordination of the somatic and autonomic functions of the body to the regulatory influences of the cerebral cortex. In case of death nerve cells in a significant part of the cerebral cortex, a person turns out to be unviable and quickly dies with a noticeable violation of the homeostasis of the most important autonomic functions.
The doctrine of higher nervous activity is one of the greatest achievements of modern natural science: it marked the beginning of a new era in the development of physiology; is of great importance for medicine, since the results obtained in the experiment served as the starting point for physiological analysis and pathogenetic treatment (for example, sleep) of some diseases of the human central nervous system; for psychology, pedagogy, cybernetics, bionics, scientific organization of labor and many other branches of human practice.
Classification of conditioned reflexes
Conditioned reflexes are individually acquired complex adaptive reactions of the organism of animals and humans that arise under certain conditions on the basis of the formation of a temporary connection between the conditioned (signal) stimulus and the unconditioned reflex act that reinforces this stimulus. They are carried out by the higher parts of the central nervous system - the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations; are formed in the process of ontogenesis on the basis of unconditioned reflexes.
The term "conditioned reflex" was proposed in 1903 by IP Pavlov. The study of this phenomenon led Pavlov to the creation of a conditioned reflex theory of animal and human behavior and a new doctrine of the functions of the brain - the physiology of higher nervous activity. The study of the patterns of formation and the characteristics of conditioned reflexes contributes to an objective understanding of the work of the brain. There are many methods for studying conditioned reflexes, but the most famous of them is the method of salivary food conditioned reflexes, it makes it possible to simply and accurately assess them as they are developed.
And although modern electrophysiological, neurochemical, psychopharmacological and other methods of analyzing the activity of the brain have introduced a lot of new things into the development of conditioned reflex theory, the main provisions formulated by I.P. Pavlov based on the study of salivary conditioned reflexes, remain unshakable to this day and serve as the foundation for new research.
Internal inhibition, which is formed in the elements of the conditioned connection itself, underlies the division of all conditioned reflexes into positive and negative. With positive (reinforced) conditioned reflexes, the conditioned signal causes excitement and a certain activity of the organism (for example, food), with negative (unreinforced) it inhibits it due to the development of internal inhibition. Depending on the stimulus to which the reflex is developed, natural and artificial conditioned reflexes are distinguished. Natural conditioned reflexes are developed for the natural properties of unconditioned reinforcement (such as, for example, the sight, smell of food), which have biological significance for the animal. Artificial conditioned reflexes are developed to stimuli that were not initially associated with reinforcement (for example, bell, light, metronome).
In accordance with biological significance unconditioned reinforcement distinguish between conditioned food reflexes associated with the acquisition, intake and assimilation of food; protective (defensive), etc. Conditioned reflexes are divided into autonomic and somatomotor ones according to the characteristics of response reactions. Depending on the structure of conditioned stimuli and on the ratios in time of the action of the conditioned and unconditioned components, as well as on the characteristics of reinforcement, on the time of the response to the signal, conditioned reflexes are distinguished:
1) the first order, formed on the basis of unconditional;
2) higher order (2nd, 3rd, etc.), arising on the basis of earlier
developed temporary connections;
3) imitative, in which the reinforcement is behavioral
the reactions of another animal;
4) associations when a conditioned reflex appears when two
indifferent stimuli;
5) instrumental, performing which, the animal contributes to the active
getting food or getting rid of harmful influences (for example,
painful). With this form conditioned reflex the response to the signal is not
reproduces the reaction on the basis of which it was developed.
For the formation of conditioned reflexes, a sufficiently high level of organization of the central nervous system is required. Thus, invertebrates are characterized by individually acquired forms of behavior that are not identified with conditioned reflex. Practically true conditioned reflexes are developed in vertebrates: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Conditioned reflexes of a higher order are formed with difficulty, which depends on the level of organization of a living organism. In a dog, conditioned reflexes can be developed up to the 5th, 6th order, in a monkey - up to the 10-12th order, in humans, his abstract thinking is based on the ability to form conditioned reflexes of the 20th and higher order. An example of such complex reactions can be, for example, working on various devices, controlling machines, and other labor and motor acts, often associated with speech.
3. The mechanism of formation of conditioned reflexes
If the intensity of stimulation of the receptors reaches the threshold or suprathreshold force in various reflexogenic zones, excitation arises in them, which, spreading along the sensory nerves, enters the central nervous system and causes a reflex response.
Reflex excitement arising in any reflexogenic zone is addressed from the centers of the sensory nerves not to all, but to strictly defined effector (motor or secretory) nerve centers. In unconditioned reflexes, this connection between the sensory and effector centers is innate.
Conditioned reflexes are characterized by the fact that each stimulus (light, sound, proprioceptive, etc.) known conditions acquire a signal value and become an irritant that causes a special response of the body: motor, secretory, food, defensive, etc. arising in the auditory sensory center, will spread to the efferent centers of salivation.
IP Pavlov explains the mechanism of formation of conditioned reflexes as follows. If in the central nervous system there are two centers of excitement, then the stronger of them "attracts" to itself excitement from the less strong. If this kind of interaction of strong and weak foci of excitation is combined repeatedly several times, a conditioned reflex may form. So, after several combinations of a relatively weak focus of excitation in the visual center (under the action of light) with a stronger focus of excitation in the food center (during feeding), excitation from the visual center will spread to the food center. As a result, the action of the light stimulus will cause a food reaction in the form of salivation even without eating, that is, a conditioned reflex is formed.
In lower animals, the formation of conditioned reflexes can be carried out at the expense of the subcortical regions of the brain - the cerebellum (fish), striatum (birds), etc.
In mammals and in humans, the cerebral cortex plays an important role in the formation of conditioned reflex connections. But at the same time, connections between conditioned reflex centers are carried out both due to intercortical pathways (i.e. between different zones of the cerebral cortex), and due to paths connecting the cortex with various subcortical formations (reticular formation, etc.). So, after removal of the cerebral hemispheres in dogs, only the simplest conditioned reflexes are preserved and can form. They are produced very slowly, are characterized by fragility and lack of focus. The latter is manifested, for example, in development in response to a conditioned signal of disorderly motor activity.
Conditioned reflexes are well formed only under certain conditions, the most important of which are:
1) a repeated combination of the action of a previously indifferent conditional
stimulus with the action of a reinforcing unconditioned or earlier
a well-developed conditioned stimulus;
2) some precedence in time of the action of the indifferent
agent to the action of a reinforcing stimulus;
3) vigorous state of the body;
4) the absence of other types of vigorous activity;
5) a sufficient degree of unconditioned excitability or good
fixed conditioned reinforcing stimulus;
6) the above-threshold intensity of the conditioned stimulus.
The coincidence of the action of an indifferent stimulus with the action of a reinforcing stimulus (an unconditioned or well-fixed conditioned stimulus), as a rule, should be repeated several times. With the formation of new conditioned reflexes in the same setting, the process of formation of these reflexes is accelerated. For example, in a dog in experiments in a chamber, the first conditioned reflex is formed after 10-20 combinations, the subsequent ones - much faster. In humans, many conditioned reflexes, especially to verbal stimuli, can be formed after one combination.
The duration of the time before the action of the new conditioned stimulus to the action of the reinforcing stimulus should not be significant. So, in dogs, reflexes are especially well developed with a duration of this preceding time of 5-10 seconds. When combined in the reverse order, when the reinforcing stimulus begins to act earlier than the indifferent one, the conditioned reflex is not developed.
The formation of conditioned reflex connections, which easily proceeds in the conditions of a vigorous state of the body, is difficult when it is inhibited. Thus, in animals that are in a drowsy state, conditioned reflexes are either not formed at all, or they are formed slowly, with difficulty. The inhibited state makes it difficult to form conditioned reflexes in humans.
With the dominance in the central nervous system of centers not associated with the formation of these conditioned reflexes, the formation of these reflexes becomes difficult. So, if a dog has a sharp excitement, for example, at the sight of a cat, then under these conditions the formation of an alimentary salivary reflex to the sound of a bell or the light of a lamp does not occur. In a person absorbed in any business, the formation of conditioned reflexes to other types of activity at this time is also sharply hampered.
Conditioned reflexes are formed only when there is sufficient excitability of the centers of these reinforcing reflexes. For example, in the development of conditioned food reflexes in dogs, experiments are carried out under the condition of high excitability of the food center (the hungry state of the animal).
The emergence and consolidation of a conditioned reflex connection occurs at a certain level of arousal nerve centers... In this regard, the strength of the conditioned signal should be sufficient - above the threshold, but not excessive. Conditioned reflexes are not developed at all to weak stimuli or are formed slowly and are characterized by instability. Excessively strong stimuli cause the development of protective (transcendental) inhibition in the nerve cells, which also complicates or excludes the possibility of the formation of conditioned reflexes.
4. Forms of learning
There are four main groups in the classification of learning, united mainly by the criterion of the activity of an animal or person in the course of learning:
passive (reactive) learning;
operant learning;
learning through observation;
1.) Passive (reactive) learning takes place in all cases when the body passively (without making targeted efforts) reacts to some external factors and when new memory traces are formed in the nervous system. The following forms are passive learning:
Addiction - extinction of the orienting reaction (reflex - "what is it?" According to I.P. Pavlov). If the stimulus is repeated many times and has no particular significance for the body, the body stops responding to it, and addiction develops. The tentative reaction fades away.
Sensitization - an increase in the body's response to a repetitive stimulus, if it causes each time discomfort... In this case, learning is negative and is expressed in the corresponding behavioral reactions of the stimulus-response type (after several repetitions of the stimulus).
Imprinting - imprinting the surrounding reality in the memory of a newborn. Imprinting - special form associative learning, based on an innate predisposition to certain combinations of stimuli and emerging responses in early period development of the body.
Classical conditioned reflexes according to I.P. Pavlov - positive or negative.
2.) Operational learning is learning, during which the body achieves a beneficial result through active behavior. There are three main such types of learning.
Instrumental conditioned reflex - learning to act through reward (reinforcement)
Trial and error method.
Self-stimulation of brain structures for pleasure.
3.) Learning by observation. There are two types of such learning: simple imitation and vicarious learning.
Simple imitation. For example, a monkey, in communication with researchers, learned to wash a banana before eating, not understanding why it was doing it.
Vicarious teaching. It is also carried out through observation, but the result of the action is evaluated. Such learning is peculiar only to man. Children especially often use learning by observation, and in early ontogeny it is predominantly imitative. With age, vicarious learning begins to prevail more and more over imitative learning.
4.) Learning by insight (insight) is a sudden non-standard correct solution to a problem: sometimes, after some trial and error, the idea of an effective action arises, which can be improved in the process of achieving the goal. This type of learning is the result of combining the experience accumulated in memory with the information that the individual has when solving a problem.
It should be noted that in specific situations, in order to achieve this or that useful adaptive result, an individual most often implements not one, but several types of learning. Private teaching (learning to play a musical instrument, learning to work on a computer, etc.) is always complex in structure.
5. Stages of the behavioral act
Any mental and physiological process a person is associated with the formation of functional systems and is the basis of behavioral acts. Every human desire is conditioned by needs (primitive, biological, vital, ideal, social). This is determined by motivational arousal.
According to P.K. Anokhin, the physiological architecture of a behavioral act
is built from the following stages successively replacing each other:
afferent synthesis, decision-making, acceptor of action results,
efferent synthesis (or program of action), the formation of
actions and evaluation of the achieved result.
1. A behavioral act of any degree of complexity begins with the stage
afferent synthesis. Excitation in the central nervous system, caused by an external stimulus, does not act in isolation. It certainly enters into subtle interaction with other afferent excitations that have a different functional meaning. The brain produces an extensive synthesis of all those signals from the outside world that enter the brain through numerous sensory channels. And only as a result of the synthesis of these afferent excitations are conditions created for the implementation of a certain purposeful behavior. What kind of behavior will be carried out depends on what processes will develop during the stage of afferent synthesis. The content of afferent synthesis, in turn, is determined by the influence of several factors: motivational arousal, memory, situational afferentation, triggering afferentation. Motivational excitement appears in the central nervous system with the emergence of a person's need. It is a necessary component of any behavior, which is always aimed at satisfying the dominant need (vital, social, ideal).
Motivational arousal plays a special role in formatting
afferent synthesis. Any information entering the central nervous system correlates with the currently dominant motivational excitement, which is, as it were, a filter that selects what is needed and rejects what is unnecessary for a given motivational setting.
The neurophysiological basis of motivational arousal is
selective activation of various nerve structures created before
the entire limbic and reticular systems of the brain. This enables the brain to examine its surroundings and choose the moment to react. Completion of the stage of afferent synthesis is accompanied by a transition to the stage of decision-making, which determines the type and direction of behavior.
2.The stage of decision-making is implemented through a special and
a very important stage of the behavioral act - the formation of the apparatus
the acceptor of the result of the action. It is an apparatus for programming the results of future events. It actualizes the innate and individual memory of an animal and a person in relation to the properties of external objects that can satisfy an arisen need, as well as methods of action aimed at achieving a result.
3. Acceptor of the result of the action. It is represented by a network of interconnected neurons engulfed in circular interactions. Excitation, having got into this network, continues to circulate in it for a long time. Thanks to this mechanism, long-term retention of the goal as the main regulator of behavior is achieved. Before purposeful behavior begins to occur, another stage of the behavioral act develops.
4. Stage of the program of action or efferent synthesis. At this stage, the integration of somatic and autonomic stimuli into a holistic behavioral act is carried out. This stage is characterized by the fact that the action has already been formed as a central process, but externally it is not yet realized.
5. Formation of the action itself or the implementation of a program of behavior. Efferent excitation reaches the actuators, and the action is carried out. Thanks to the apparatus of the acceptor of the results of an action, in which the goal and methods of behavior are programmed, the organism is able to compare them with the incoming afferent information about the results and parameters of the action being performed, i.e. with reverse afferentation.
It is the results of comparison that determine the subsequent construction of behavior, or it is corrected, or it stops, as in the case of achieving the final result. In the case when the results of the action do not coincide with the acceptors of the action and their mismatch arises, an approximate research activity appears. As a result of this, the entire afferent synthesis is rebuilt, a new decision is made, a new acceptor of the results of action is created, a new program of action is built. This happens until the results of the behavior match the properties of the new acceptor of the action. And then the behavioral act ends with the last sanctioning stage - the satisfaction of needs. So in concept functional system the most important key stage that determines the development of behavior is the allocation of the goal of behavior. It is represented by the apparatus of the acceptor of the results of action, which contains two types of images that regulate behavior - the goals themselves and the ways to achieve them. The allocation of the goal is associated with the operation of decision-making as the final stage of afferent synthesis.
6. Features of the higher nervous activity of adolescents (properties of the nervous system)
Adolescents of both sexes differ from adults in a higher excitability of the nervous system. In young men, the decrease in excitability to the level of adult men occurs gradually from 15 to 18 years. In girls, in the dynamics of this property, two critical periods were revealed: 16 years, when excitability rises sharply, and 19 years, when it again decreases almost to the level of adult women. Girls aged 18 years are characterized by the greatest excitability.
The level of strength of the nervous system in adolescents of both sexes is lower than in adults, and boys of all ages differ from girls in higher indicators of this property. An increase in the strength of the nervous system to the level of adults in boys occurs at the age of 18, and in girls - at the age of 19. The weakest nervous system among 17-18 year old girls.
The mobility of nervous processes (in terms of the processing of visual information) in adolescent boys, including 18-year-olds, is worse than in adult men; on the other hand, adolescent girls are better than adult women. The age-related dynamics of this property in young men proceeds cyclically, as a result of which the worst indicators are observed at the age of 16. The age-related dynamics of the mobility of nervous processes in girls is characterized by a constant decrease in the level from year to year.
At 15-16 years old, the indicators of mobility in boys and girls are the same; starting from the age of 17, the mobility of nervous processes in men is significantly higher than in women.
Adolescents differ from adults and have the worst indicators of the balance of nervous processes, while the indicators of equilibrium in boys are better than in girls. In young men of all ages, there is a tendency towards the predominance of the excitatory process over the inhibitory process; in girls in all age periods, the inhibitory process predominates, which is quite consistent with the relative weakness of the nervous system in excitation noted in them.
The best indicators of the balance of nervous processes in boys are noted at 16 and 18 years old, in girls - 15 years old, the worst - in girls 16-18 years old and boys 17 years old.
7. Second signal system. Stages of development of cognitive ability in children.
The second signaling system is a system of the body that provides the formation of a generalized idea of the surrounding reality with the help of the human language. Although the first signaling system is characteristic of animals and humans, due to the close interaction of both systems in humans, its first signaling system is qualitatively different from that in animals and bears the imprint of cultural and historical influences.
The content of concepts in the second signal system is fixed in words, images of works of art, mathematical symbols. Animals also have a language of signals, but human verbal signals differ from conditioned signals of animals. Firstly, their action depends not so much on physical characteristics as on semantic ones, i.e. the word acts by its semantic content. Secondly, verbal signaling (speech), language allows the transfer of experience, knowledge of ancestors to descendants, which qualitatively distinguishes the language of man from the language of animals, allowing the accumulation of knowledge about the surrounding nature, and immensely increases the power of man over the world around him. Both signaling systems have common features: their activity is based on reflex mechanisms. The entire cerebral cortex is related to both signaling systems, which closely interact with each other: the second signaling system in its activity depends to a certain extent on the functioning of the first signaling system. Since through it the necessary information enters the second signaling system.
Speech - general form communication of people with each other using signals (words), providing human thinking. Speech can be internal, which is a necessary form of the thinking process, and external, with the help of which a person communicates his thoughts to other people, oral or written. Speech is one of the forms of using language.
Human language is a means of communication between people, the main form of which is written or oral speech, as well as - mathematical formulas and symbols, drawings, gestures, facial expressions. Language provides the transfer of the entire body of knowledge and human ideas about the world. The structure of the language and its essence are its grammatical structure and basic vocabulary.
Thus, the first signaling system provides a specific-sensory reflection. At the same time, at first, a sensation of individual properties of objects and phenomena is formed in the body, perceived by the corresponding receptor formations and leading to a more complex form of reflection - perception.
The signals of the second signal system are words, with the help of which the transition from the sensory image of the first signal system to the concepts, representations of the second signal system is carried out. At the same time, the semantic content of a word, for example, "table", does not depend on the sound of this concept in different languages. Higher forms of abstraction in signaling systems the brain is usually associated with the act of artistic creative activity a person when the product of creativity acts as one of the forms of language. The word is the main element of the second signaling system.
The stages of development of the child's cognitive ability are associated with the development of the generalizing function of the word.
The initial period is associated with sensorimotor activity, it occurs at the age of 1.5-2 years.
The second period (age 2-7 years) is preoperative thinking, it is determined by the development of language, when the child begins to actively use sensory thinking schemes.
The third period (age 7-11 years) is characterized by the development of logical verbal thinking with the activation of internal speech, using specific concepts.
The fourth, final (11-17 years old) is characterized by the formation of abstract thinking. By the age of 17, the formation of psychophysiological mechanisms of mental activity is basically completed. A teenager uses inner speech as successfully as an adult.
Bibliography
1. "Physiology of higher nervous activity" / NN Danilova, AL Krylova - M .: Phoenix, 1999
2. "Age physiology" / Yu. A. Ermalaev. - M .: Higher. shk. 1985.
3. "Physiology of higher nervous activity" / L. G. Voronin. - M .: Higher. shk. 1979
4. "Neurophysiology and higher nervous activity in children and adolescents" / V.M. Smirnov: 2nd ed., Stereotype. - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 2004.
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