Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior
Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior of animals (according to A.N. Leontiev and K.E. Fabry)
| Stages and level of mental reflection, its characteristics | Features of behavior associated with a given stage and level | Types of living beings that have reached this level of development |
| 1. Stage of the elementary sensory psyche A. The lowest level. Primitive elements of sensitivity. Developed irritability. | A. Clear reactions to biologically significant properties of the environment through a change in the speed and direction of movement. Elementary forms of movements. Weak plasticity of behavior. Unformed ability to respond to biologically neutral properties of the environment, devoid of vital significance. Weak, non-purposeful physical activity. | A. The simplest. Many lower multicellular organisms living in the aquatic environment. |
| B. Top level. The presence of feelings. The appearance of the most important organ of manipulation - the jaws. Ability to form elementary conditioned reflexes. | B. Clear reactions to biologically neutral stimuli. Developed physical activity (crawling, digging in the ground, swimming out of the water to land). The ability to avoid adverse environmental conditions, move away from them, actively search for positive stimuli. Individual experience and learning play little role. Rigid innate programs are of primary importance in behavior. | B. Higher (annelid) worms, gastropods (snails), some other invertebrates. |
| II. The stage of the perceptual psyche. A. Low level. Reflection of external reality in the form of images of objects. Integration, unification of influencing properties into a holistic image of a thing. The main organ of manipulation is the jaw. | A. Formation of motor skills. Rigid, genetically programmed components predominate. Motor abilities are very complex and varied (diving, crawling, walking, running, jumping, climbing, flying, etc.). Active search for positive stimuli, avoidance of negative (harmful), developed protective behavior. | A. Fish and other lower vertebrates, as well as (in part) some higher invertebrates (arthropods and cephalopods). Insects. |
| B. Top level. Elementary forms of thinking (problem solving). The formation of a certain "picture of the world". B. The highest level. Allocation in practical activity of a special, tentative-research, preparatory phase. The ability to solve the same problem in different ways. Transferring the once found principle of solving the problem to new conditions. Creation and use of primitive tools in activities. The ability to cognize the surrounding reality, regardless of the existing biological needs. Direct discretion and consideration of causal relationships between phenomena in practical actions (insight). | B. Highly developed instinctive forms of behavior. Ability to learn. C. Allocation of specialized organs of manipulation: paws and hands. Development of research forms of behavior with a wide use of previously acquired knowledge, skills and abilities. | B. Higher vertebrates (birds and some mammals). B. Monkeys, some other higher vertebrates (dogs, dolphin |
A.N. Leontiev singled out three stages in the development of the psyche of animals: the stage of the elementary sensory psyche, the stage of the perceptual psyche, and the stage of intellect.
Animals with elementary sensory psyche are able to reflect only certain properties of external influences. The beings whose psyche is at the lowest level of this stage, i.e., exists only in embryo, include many protozoa. They are capable of fairly complex movements in space. Their movements are made towards favorable environmental conditions (positive taxises) or away from unfavorable conditions (negative taxises). The simplest are capable of elementary forms of learning, i.e., the formation of conditioned reactions. In a number of experiments, the vessel containing the ciliates of the shoe was divided into two parts. One part was illuminated, and the other was not, while the light was combined with "punishment" (high temperature, electric shock). As a result, the animals, previously indifferent to the nature of the illumination, began to prefer the safe part of the vessel even in the absence of negative reinforcement, focusing only on its illumination. As the level of phylogenetic development increases, behavior becomes more complex. In worms and mollusks, whole chains of congenital taxis appear.
Animals with perceptual psyche reflect external reality in the form of integral images of things. At this stage is the psyche of vertebrates, almost all arthropods, including insects, as well as cephalopods. The basis of all forms of animal behavior are instincts, that is, genetically fixed, inherited forms of behavior. Like morphological characters, they are reproduced in each individual of a given species in a relatively unchanged form. According to V.A. Wagner instincts are the result of natural selection, which has determined the high adaptability of instinctive behavior in all spheres of an animal's life: in obtaining food, protection, reproduction, caring for offspring, etc.
The predominance of innate instinctive forms of behavior at a given stage in the development of the psyche does not mean the absence of the possibility of learning. Many instinctive acts are finally formed in the individual experience of the animal, which ensures the adaptation of the instinctive action to environmental conditions. Of course, the plasticity of instinctive action is limited in this case and is determined by genetically given variability. In essence, any action of animals is a complex interweaving of species-typical and acquired elements of behavior. According to K.E. Fabry, at the stage of the perceptual psyche, each behavioral act is formed in ontogenesis through the implementation of genetically fixed components of species experience in the process of individual learning. Individually acquired and fixed in the exercises, the ways of animal behavior are called skills. The formation of skills depends on the level of development of the nervous system and the psyche of the animal: the higher the animal is on the phylogenetic ladder, the more complex the skills and the easier it is to develop them.
The next stage in the development of the animal psyche is intelligence stage- is characterized by an even more complex reflection of reality, which lies in the ability not only to reflect individual objects in their integrity, but also to establish relationships between objects. Higher animals are able to establish fairly complex relationships (such as more - less, shorter - longer, less often - more often), as well as distinguish the shape of geometric shapes.
The intellectual form of behavior differs significantly from simple learning, i.e., the formation of skills.
1. At a lower stage of development, finding a solution to a problem situation occurs slowly, through numerous trials, during which successful operations are gradually consolidated, and unsuccessful ones are also slowly slowed down and die off. At the stage of intellect, animals first make many attempts that do not lead to a solution to the problem, and then a sudden understanding of the relationships and structure of the problem situation is achieved - insight, which almost immediately leads to success.
2. When repeating the experiment, the solution found is reproduced without preliminary trials.
3. The solution is easily transferred to conditions similar to those in which it was found for the first time.
The intellectual development of higher apes shows that human thinking has real prerequisites in the animal world. This reflects the fact of natural continuity in the development of the psyche of humans and animals. However, one should not exaggerate the similarity between man and animal, deriving the laws of human existence from those laws that regulate the life of animals. Intellectual behavior, characteristic of higher mammals and reaching a particularly high development in anthropoid apes, represents the upper limit of development, beyond which the history of the development of the psyche of a completely different, qualitatively new type begins - human consciousness.
Until now, it is not known exactly when the psyche appeared in the evolution of living beings. According to the evolutionary theory of Ch. Darwin, in phylogeny the psyche has gone from the level of the simplest irritability to consciousness. Irritability is a property of all living things to respond to the influence of the external environment.
1. Taxis- this is an elementary form of irritability, observed even in plants (tropism). It aims to find a favorable environment. Characteristic of single-celled living beings.
2. Sensitivity- the ability of the body to perceive irritations emanating from the environment or from its own tissues and organs. Reflection by the body of such influences that are not directly biologically significant (for example, due to their energy weakness), but may signal the presence (change) of other environmental conditions that are vital (necessary or dangerous). Sensitivity requires special organs ( receptors), which respond to biologically insignificant influences. A signal form of irritability that allows one to navigate in a more complex environment (the pike "attacks" crucian carp, focusing on its movement and brilliance).
3. Behavior – interaction inherent in living beings with the environment, mediated by their external (motor) and internal (mental) activity. It is characterized by a complex set of reactions to the influence of the environment.
instincts. Instincts are the complex innate actions of animals by which animals satisfy their needs. Physiologically, instincts are complex chains of unconditioned reflexes, and the end of one reflex is the causative agent of the next reflex, and so on.
You don't need to learn instincts. They are given to the animal in a ready-made form already at its birth or naturally manifest themselves at a certain stage of the development of the organism (as reproductive instincts). An expressive example: shortly before the chicks emerge from the egg, they make an audible squeak. By imitating the cry of a kite, you can achieve a complete fading of the squeak. By imitating the clucking of a chicken, on the contrary, you can achieve a very lively vocal reaction of chickens. It is clear that a creature that has not yet been born cannot have any idea either about the danger posed by the kite or about its mother, the chicken.
Instincts have developed in the course of natural selection as a result of selection and consolidation in a number of generations of biologically expedient actions. Examples of instinctive actions are the seasonal flights of birds, the construction of nests by birds and burrows by animals, the storage of food for the winter, etc.
Sometimes instincts are very complex activities. Thus, with amazing accuracy, bees build regular hexagonal cells from wax, and practically solve a difficult task even for civil engineers - to create rooms of maximum capacity at the lowest cost of building material.
Beavers build their dwellings from several rooms, and from carefully cleaned branches they make a ceiling, which, with the art of a plasterer, is plastered with silt taken from the bottom of the river.
To regulate the water level, beavers build dams (sometimes more than 100 m long, up to 2-3 m high and 1-2 m wide), and trees for dams are gnawed upstream in order to “fuse” them through the water to the construction site. The body of the dam is built by beavers from large stakes, stuck at one end into the bottom of the river; these stakes are intertwined with branches, the gaps between which are carefully covered with clay.
Ants are especially striking in their complex instinctive behavior. In special rooms in the anthill, they store the grains they have collected, in a way that is still incomprehensible to humans, they protect these grains from germination. Ants breed mushrooms - in special rooms they store finely cut pieces of leaves mixed with the ground, on which mushrooms grow - a tasty dish of these insects. Ants breed aphids, which are used as dairy cows; irritating the abdomen of aphids with their antennae, the ants force them to secrete a sugary liquid, which they feast on. In autumn, ants carry aphids to places protected from the cold.
However, despite all its complexity, instinctive behavior is carried out automatically, without any sign of reason, thinking. This is confirmed by observations showing that under changed conditions instinctive actions often turn from very expedient into biologically meaningless and even harmful. For example, beavers even try to build dams in zoos, although there is no need for this. A bee fills a honeycomb cell with honey, even if a hole is made there, through which the honey will flow out, and then seal the empty cell. If, during her absence, the eggs are shifted somewhat aside from the nest of the auk, replacing them with rounded stones, she, having returned, sits down in her former place and continues to incubate the stones, not at all caring about the eggs that lie in her field of vision.
Instincts that are primarily characteristic of the behavior of lower animals are also present in higher animals and even in humans (in the form of innate unconditioned reflexes - food, defensive self-preservation instinct, procreation instinct, etc.). In human behavior, instincts are of a completely different nature, obeying consciousness, the social nature of man.
Instincts are a very rigidly fixed form of behavior. But they do not remain completely unchanged. The environment is constantly and, as a rule, slowly, gradually changing. Accordingly, very slowly, over many, many generations, instinctive forms of behavior are also rebuilt, and those that have ceased to be biologically expedient at all gradually die off in the course of natural selection and cease to be inherited. For example, domestic birds (chickens, ducks, turkeys) have almost completely lost the instinct to fly, which has become completely unnecessary for them.
Animal skills. So, animals cannot successfully adapt to a changing environment, relying only on innate forms of behavior - instincts. As the life of animals becomes more complex, a new, more perfect type of behavior begins to acquire leading importance, allowing the animal to adapt relatively easily to changes in the environment. This type of behavior is a habit.
Skill is a way of behavior acquired in individual life and fixed as a result of exercises. The skill is based on a system of conditioned reflexes. Skills appear at a higher level of development of the animal world. This is a more perfect adaptive mechanism, since the animal gets the opportunity, in accordance with changes in the environment, to develop relatively quickly more and more conditioned reflexes. If the need for this or that conditioned reflex has passed, then it fades away.
Skill compared to instinct is not always a more complex form of behavior (in some cases, instincts are much more complex forms of behavior - recall the examples above), but more flexible, plastic and, as a result, a more perfect form of behavior.
As for the mind, thinking, they do not appear in the skills of animals. Habit is a conditioned reflex and nothing more. The dog had developed a skill - to press the lock of the cage with his paw, to unlock it to receive food. The cage was then rotated 180°. The dog did not approach the door, but to the previous place (i.e., oriented itself to the spatial position) and made senseless movements with its paw, as if pressing on the lock, which was now on the opposite side.
Intellectual behavior of animals. In the process of adaptation of animals to the environment, it often becomes necessary to solve a certain problem associated with overcoming obstacles, to find the optimal behavior in a new situation. Neither instincts nor skills make it possible to cope with this task. The animal must find a new form of behavior, which at it was not in the experience. In these cases, higher animals (primarily apes and dolphins) are capable of the so-called intellectual behavior - the simplest forms of mental activity based on establishing links between objects. Monkeys, for example, in order to get the bait, can build a tower with steps out of boxes, use sticks of various lengths and thicknesses, fill fire with water, open various locks, selecting sticks of a certain size and section for this. Experiments have shown that a chimpanzee can single out any one property of a thing, abstracting (distracting) from others (for example, selecting figures based on color, abstracting from their shape and size, or according to their shape, abstracting from color and size). What is very important, the new found way of solving is immediately remembered by the animal, becomes its lasting property. It follows from this that intellectual behavior is the highest and most perfect form of behavior in the animal world, providing the most flexible adaptation of the animal to changing environmental conditions.
It should be emphasized the limited and primitive mental activity of higher animals. A monkey, for example, when building pyramids from boxes, often puts large boxes on top of small ones, sometimes tries to “glue” the box to the side wall of the room, tries to put the ladder without a stop, in the middle of the cage. From several ribbons, the monkey chooses the one for which it is possible to pull up a cup of food, but does not realize that in some cases it is necessary to pull both ends of the ribbon at once (Fig. 3).
The monkey, trained to draw water from a river to water itself on a hot summer day, moved to another raft to draw water from a tank and put out the fire that prevented it from reaching the fruit. Why didn't she draw water from the river for this purpose? The thing is that the monkey learned to water himself with water from the river, and to put out the fire with water from the tank. For her, the water in the river and the water in the tank are different things, different irritants. A person has a general idea about water and its properties. She knows that any water extinguishes fire, and acts on the basis of these general concepts.
Thus, we can only talk about the rudiments of thinking in higher animals, about their "elementary rationality" (I.P. Pavlov). According to many scientists, their mental abilities can be equated with the mental abilities of a child of 3-4 years of age.
Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Federal Agency for Education
Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University
Institute of Psychology
Department of Theoretical and Experimental Psychology
Examination No. 5
On the course "General psychology"
On the topic "Development of the psyche and consciousness"
Student Minniakhmetova K.A.
DZPP group - 112 s
Yekaterinburg 2007
Plan
Introduction
1. Psyche as a result of the evolution of matter
2. The main stages in the development of the psyche in animals
3. Development of higher mental functions in humans
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction
Each specific science differs from other sciences in the features of its subject, but if in each science the subject and object are distinguished, then in psychology such a distinction causes certain difficulties, since here both the object and the subject are a person.
The very definition of psychology appeared in the 16th century in Western European texts, translated from Latin - psychology, literally, understanding, knowledge of the soul. It is both scientific and everyday in nature. The scientific, on the other hand, differs from the everyday in that, relying on the power of abstraction and universal human experience, it discovers the laws that govern the world. But only by the middle of the 19th century did psychology become an independent science from disparate knowledge, but this does not mean that before that, ideas about the psyche (soul, consciousness, behavior) were devoid of signs of scientific character. They were part of philosophy, pedagogy, medicine.
The basis of scientific psychological knowledge is the doctrine of the human psyche, that is, its properties (character, temperament, abilities), processes (sensation, perception, thinking, etc.) and states (apathy, anger, frustration).
I believe that the most important stage in understanding psychology is the study of the evolution of the psyche and the development of higher mental functions of a person, since this is the basis of his activity and behavior.
Objective:
· consideration of the development of the psyche as a result of the evolution of matter, understanding the main stages in the development of the psyche in animals and the development of human mental functions.
Tasks:
to carry out the analysis of information and reference literature
· Consider the main stages in the development of the psyche in animals and the development of higher mental functions in humans.
The problem of the development of the psyche and consciousness is sufficiently developed in domestic and foreign literature, since it is the basis of psychology. This issue is especially detailed in the works of Rubinshtein S.L., Vygotsky L.S., Gippenreiter Yu.B.
Psyche as a result of the evolution of matter.
Phylogeny - the process of changing the psyche as a product of evolution. In domestic psychology, the methodological basis for studying the problem of the evolution of forms of consciousness is dialectical and historical materialism. The main problems in the study of phylogeny are:
Identification of the main stages in the evolution of the psyche of animals;
· Identification of the conditions for the transition from one stage to another, the general factors of evolution;
· Identification of the main stages of the evolution of forms of consciousness;
· Establishing the relationship between the main stages of phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
Psyche - this is a property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the active reflection of the objective world by the subject, the construction by the subject of a picture of this world inalienable from him and the regulation of behavior and activity on this basis.
Mechanisms of manifestation of the psyche:
· The psyche is a property of only living matter, and only that which has specific organs that determine the possibility of the existence of the psyche.
· The main feature of the psyche is the ability to reflect the objective world. Highly organized living matter with a psyche is capable of receiving information about the surrounding world
· The information received by a living being about the surrounding world serves as the basis for regulating the environment of a living organism and shaping its behavior, thereby determining the possibility of a long-term existence of this organism in constantly changing environmental conditions.
The psyche arose at a certain stage in the development of life as a mechanism for the active interaction of living beings with the environment. In nature, there are a significant number of forms of living matter that have certain mental abilities. These forms of living matter differ from each other in terms of the level of development of mental properties. The elementary ability to respond selectively to the effects of the external environment is already observed in the simplest (single-celled) organisms.
Irritability - this is the simplest form of biological reflection, it is possessed by all living organisms at all stages of the evolution of plant and animal forms. Irritability is expressed in the manifestation of the forced activity of a living organism. The higher the level of development of the organism, the more complex the manifestation of its activity in the event of a change in environmental conditions. Primary forms of irritability, the so-called taxis (tropism), can be observed even in plants.
Taxis(tropism) - mechanically oriented components of behavioral acts. Congenital ways of spatial orientation towards favorable or from unfavorable environmental conditions, irritations. The further development of irritability in living beings is largely associated with the complication of the living conditions of more developed organisms, which, accordingly, have a more complex anatomical structure. Living organisms of a given level of development are forced to respond to a more complex set of environmental factors, and this predetermines the emergence of more complex forms of response in them, called sensitivity.
Sensitivity - this is the ability to respond to neutral, biologically insignificant stimuli, provided that they signal the appearance of vital influences. Sensitivity to neutral stimuli causes fundamental changes in the forms of life. A living being begins to actively navigate in the environment and respond to every change in it. A complex set of reactions of a living organism to environmental influences is - behavior.
The main stages in the development of the psyche in animals.
There are several stages in the development of the psyche.
Stage of elementary sensory psyche - simple unconditioned reflexes.
Lower Level: Animals are characterized by the appearance of elementary forms of movement, weak plasticity of behavior, this includes protozoa, many lower multicellular organisms living in an aquatic environment.
Highest level: developed motor activity, the ability to respond differentially to external stimuli, these include higher (annelid) worms, gastropods (snails), and some other invertebrates.
Stage of the perceptual psyche - complex unconditioned reflexes (instincts).
Lower Level: animals have a complex nervous system, motor skills are formed, motor abilities become more complicated, defensive behavior becomes more developed, and an object-figurative reflection of reality appears.
At this level, there are fish and other lower vertebrates, as well as (partly) some higher invertebrates (arthropods and cephalopods), insects.
Highest level: there are highly developed instinctive forms of behavior, the ability to learn. At this level, there are higher vertebrates (birds and some mammals).
Instinct- a set of innate components of behavior. The instincts of animals are diverse, always associated with biological needs, characterized by stereotypes.
Imprinting - a specific form of learning in higher vertebrates, in which the distinctive features of the objects of some innate behavioral acts of parental individuals as carriers of the characteristics of the species are fixed; deep attachment to the first moving object that was seen by animals after its birth.
stage of intellect- skills.
At this stage, the ability for intellectual behavior appears when obstacles arise on the way to achieving the goal, but intellectual actions are of a primitive nature and are not the result of knowledge of the objective laws of nature. Animals begin to create and use primitive tools in their activities, while the invented methods of action are not transferred from one animal to another. At this level - monkeys, some other higher vertebrates (dogs, dolphins).
Skill is a complex individual dynamic program of behavior that is formed in the body in the course of its relationship with the outside world.
The stage of consciousness the highest stage of development of the psyche.
At this stage, a person develops speech, the ability to arbitrarily regulate mental processes. Knowledge of the general and essential in reality, abstract thinking.
The evolution of the psyche is not straightforward. In the same environment, animals with very different levels of reflection live, and vice versa, in different habitats, you can find different types of animals with similar levels of reflection. The environment is not something permanent. To this evolving environment, the animal species that lives in it adapts. Moreover, a change in the environment can significantly affect the development of mental functions of some animal species and at the same time not have a significant impact on the development of mental functions of other animal species.
The development of higher mental functions in humans.
Topic 3. Development of the psyche and consciousness
3.0.1. The idea of the relationship between the psyche and the brain
3.0.2. The structure and functions of the nervous system
3.0.3 Reflex activity of the brain
3.1. The problem of the emergence of the psyche. Stages of development of the psyche in phylogenesis.
3.2. Socio-historical nature of human consciousness.
3.3. The development of consciousness in ontogeny. Higher mental functions.
3.4. Characteristics of consciousness.
3.5. Altered states of consciousness.
Literature in this section:
3.0.1. The idea of the relationship between the psyche and the brain
Nowadays, there are several alternative theories that require an answer to the question of how the psyche and the brain are connected.
According to theories of psychophysical parallelism
, mental and physiological create two independent series of phenomena that correspond to each other, but do not intersect and do not influence each other. This allows the existence of a soul that is related to a specific physical body, but acts independently of it according to its own laws. 3.0.2. The structure and functions of the nervous system
AT theories of mechanical identity
mental phenomena are considered as physiological in nature and origin. This theory does not take into account the qualitative differences between mental and nervous processes.
In the theory of the unity of the brain and psyche
it is argued that mental and physiological processes occur simultaneously, but have differences in essential qualitative characteristics. Therefore, mental phenomena are not correlated with individual neurophysiological processes, but with their organized aggregates - the functional systems of the brain. Thus, it is argued that the psyche is a systemic feature of the brain, which is realized with the help of multilevel functional systems that are formed in a person throughout life in the processes of individual and general activity, learning and communication.
According to the idea that was formed within the framework of the physiology of higher nervous activity, as well as in psychophysiology, the psyche is an integral product of the functioning of the nervous system. Thus, the nervous system and higher nervous activity create the anatomical and physiological substratum (basis) of the mental activity of the organism.
Nervous system - this is a hierarchical structure of nerve formations in vertebrates and humans; the central regulator that ensures the vital activity of the organism as a whole.
The main functions of the nervous system:
1. Organization of interaction of an individual with the environment:
a) processing and integration of sensory information that comes from the external and internal environment of the body.
b) programming an adequate response and behavior of the individual
2. Coordination of the work of internal organs
3. Setting and implementation of the goals of behavior / activity
4. Active and holistic adaptation of the body to the conditions of existence.
The emergence of the nervous system is the result of a long evolution, which was revealed in the continuous complication and differentiation of the physiological mechanisms of behavior.
Structural and functional element of the nervous system (regardless of the level of its organization) - neuron. This is a nerve cell, the main component of the nervous tissue. The purpose of a neuron is to conduct excitation - the transmission of a nerve impulse from one section of the nervous system to another.
The structure of a neuron is identical in all vertebrates; it consists of a cell body and processes that extend from it - dendrites and axons.
The nervous system is divided into 3 parts:
- central, which consists of the brain and spinal cord
-peripheral, which consists of spinal and cranial nerves
- vegetative, which provides innervation of internal organs and glands
The brain is the center of mental activity. It consists of two hemispheres - right and left; intermediate, middle, hind, forebrain. The most significant part of the latter is the cerebral cortex.
The cerebral cortex consists of departments that, according to their location, have names: occipital (responsible for visual perception), temporal (hearing, a person also has speech), parietal (reactions to sensory stimuli and hand control), frontal (coordination of the functions of other departments bark).
In human mental activity, a special role belongs to the frontal lobes, which occupy 30% of the total surface of the cerebral cortex. Damage to the frontal lobes affects the higher forms of behavior associated with intelligence, learning, thinking. Numerous clinical facts indicate that damage to the frontal lobes leads to disturbances in the personal sphere of a person, its character.
It has also been established that mental functions are divided in a certain way between the right and left hemispheres. Both hemispheres are able to receive and process information in the form of images and in the form of verbal stimuli (words), but there is an interhemispheric functional asymmetry of the brain - a different degree of detection of certain functions in the left and right hemispheres. 3.0.3 Reflex activity of the brain
At the heart of all forms of systemic activity of the brain is a universal principle - reflex,
that is, the organization of nervous processes according to the type of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes.
The scheme of action of any reflex is called the "reflex arc", or in a more complex and precise version - the "reflex ring". This scheme reflects the nature of the connection between the afferent and executive parts of the nervous system, i.e. between the analyzer (a sense organ that supplies sensory information) and an effector (a movement organ that provides behavioral correction).
According to the fundamental theory of Pavlov, there are conditioned and unconditioned reflexes.
Unconditioned reflex (from lat. reflexus - reflection) - a randomly fixed stereotypical form of response to biologically significant influences of the outside world or changes in the internal environment of the body. Unconditioned reflexes carry out adaptation to relatively stable conditions.
Conditioned reflex
- one of the two main types of reflexes, discovered and studied by the great Russian physiologist Pavlov. Various types of conditioned reflexes are formed under certain conditions during the life of the organism on the basis of innate unconditioned reflexes. A conditioned reflex arises as a result of the repeated connection of the action of an unconditioned stimulus (for example, food) with the action of any factor that, although perceived by the body, is indifferent to its vital needs (for example, a bell, a flash of an electric lamp). In this case, the indifferent stimulus must be ahead in time or act simultaneously with the unconditioned stimulus. The emergence of a conditioned reflex consists in the acquisition by the organism of the peculiarity of giving to a stimulus that was previously indifferent to it, the same reaction that only an unconditioned stimulus could previously cause. This change is explained by the fact that the previously indifferent stimulus begins to play the role of a signal about the next regular appearance of the unconditioned stimulus. This stimulus, which has become a signal (or simply a signal), is also called a conditioned stimulus, because it acquires and performs the role of a signal only under certain conditions. Hence also the name of the conditioned reflex, which denotes the mechanism of closing and functioning of temporary nerve connections described above.
3.1. The problem of the emergence of the psyche. Stages of development of the psyche in phylogenesis
Reflection - a universal property of matter, which lies in the ability of objects to reproduce with varying degrees of adequacy the features, structural characteristics and relationships of other objects
The psyche is a function of the brain, but this is not enough to understand the nature and origin of the psychic. The psyche is determined not by the brain, but by external reality. Such an influence of reality on the organism is possible only in the process of real interaction of the organism with the environment. That's whythe problem of the origin of the psyche arises as the problem of the origin of special activity at a certain stage in the development of life as a whole, with a change in living conditions
Throughout the history of the development of science, the following views have been proposed on the "moment" of the appearance of the psyche:
panpsychism - all matter, living and non-living, has a psyche;
biopsychism - Only living matter has a psyche;
neuropsychism - the psyche is only where there is a nervous system;
anthropopsychism Only humans have a mind.
It is impossible to solve these questions if we do not consider the features of the interaction between the organism and the environment.
There are the following levels of reflection:
Physical - exists at the level of inanimate nature, it is a direct physical trace, a change in the physical state of one object under the influence of another.
physiological (irritability) - exists at the level of wildlife, it is a reaction to biologically important stimuli. Irritability exists in the form tropisms- in plants, and taxis- in animals.
Mental (sensitivity) - a reflection of abiotic influences that are signals or signs of biologically important. Trait reflection enables more adaptive behavior.
According to Leontiev, elementary form of the psyche are sensations that reflect the external objective reality.
Leontiev also highlights two objective criteria of the psyche: sensitivity and ability to learn.
A.N. Leontiev: " The appearance of sensitivity is the first objective criterion for the appearance of the psyche "
Stages of mental reflection:
Phylogenesis
- historical evolutionary development.
Ontogenesis
- lifelong human development.
Stages of development of the psyche in phylogenesis
According to Leontiev, regarding the emergence of the psyche, mental reflection goes through the following stages, or stages:
- Elementary sensory psyche. Reflection of individual properties, objects, phenomena. (From amoeba to insect). The main form of behavior is instinct.
- Perceptual psyche. Reflection of integral objects and phenomena. (Vertebrates) A form of behavior - a skill - an individually acquired form of behavior that provides adaptation to changing conditions. Imprinting - some species of animals have a genetic program from the moment of birth, but it depends on the environment in which the animals get.
- Intelligent Behavior. Reflection of relationships between objects. (Apes). The form of behavior is intellectual action. Manual intelligence (working with hands), the ability to solve two-phase tasks: 1) preparation phase 2) execution
1. At a low stage of development, operations are formed slowly, through numerous trials, during which successful movements are gradually consolidated, while unnecessary movements are inhibited. Monkeys previously go through a period of complete failure - many attempts that do not lead to the implementation of activities, and then - as if a sudden "discovery" of the operation, which immediately leads to success.
2. If the experiment is repeated, then this operation, despite the fact that it was carried out only once, is recreated - the monkey performs the task without any preliminary attempts.
3. The monkey very easily transfers the found solution to other conditions, only similar to those in which the solution first arose.
4. There is an ability to solve two-phase tasks (with a short stick to get a long one, and after it - a fetus)
These characteristics persist in the more complex behavior of great apes.
In two-phase tasks, it is revealed two-phase nature of any intellectual activity of animals, which has the following phases:
1) preparatory
- is not prompted by the object itself, to which it is directed, out of connection with the second phase, it is devoid of biological meaning. This phase is connected not with the stick itself, but with the objective relationship of the stick to the fruit.
2) implementation
- is already directed at an object that directly stimulates the animal, this is an operation that becomes a fairly strong skill.
The presence of a preparatory phase constitutes a certain feature of intellectual behavior. Intelligence arises where the process of preparing the possibility to carry out this or that operation or skill arises.
From the point of view of reflection, the first phase corresponds to an objective relationship between objects.
Difference between human and animal psyche
The difference between the animal psyche and the human psyche lies primarily in the conditions of its development. The animal develops according to the laws of biological evolution, man submits to the laws of socio-historical development.
Disagreements between the psyche of man and animal:
Comparison Options | Animal psyche | Human psyche |
1. Phylogeny | biological evolution | Cultural and historical development |
2. Factors of mental development in ontogenesis | Biological | Sociocultural and socio-psychological |
| 3. Activity form | Instinctive and searching behavior | Purposeful and conscious activity, general or individual. |
| 4. Nature of activity | Directly related to the biological needs of the organism and the characteristics of a particular situation | Supra-situational and mediated by socio-cultural experience. |
| 5. Activity/behavior regulators | Instincts, unconditioned and conditioned reflexes | Knowledge, social norms, traditions and cultural values, symbolic and sign systems. |
| 6. The nature of self-regulation | Mostly involuntary, unconscious | Voluntary: conscious self-control, will |
| 7. Information exchange with the environment | The first signaling system: information about the world in the form of sensations - signals that enter the brain from the senses | The second signaling system: information about the world comes in verbal form; signals are signs of the language. |
8. Form of communication between individuals of the same species (individuals) | Non-verbal: expressive movements, sound signals | Verbal-sign: language, system of signs and meanings. |
| 9. The level of development of mental functions | Lower/natural (genetically programmed) mental functions | Higher / mediated (conditioned by culture) mental functions |
| 10. The nature of intellectual / mental activity | The beginnings of visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking, the ability to solve complex (two-phase) tasks in specific problem situations. | Verbal-logical (verbally-mediated) conceptual thinking, the ability to generalize and abstract |
The factor that influenced the transformation of a monkey into a man, a herd into society (according to Charles Darwin's hypothesis) was labor activity, i.e. such an activity that is carried out by people in the general manufacture and use of tools.
3.2. Socio-historical nature of human consciousness
Conscious reflection, in contrast to the mental reflection of animals, is a reflection of objective reality in its separation from the subject's actual relations to it, i.e. a reflection highlighting its objective and stable properties
Any activity of animals is directed to the objects of biological needs and is stimulated by these objects, the object of activity and the biological motive in animals are always merged, always coincide with each other.
The complex activity of higher animals submits to natural connections and relationships. In a person, it submits to connections and relations that are initially social. This is the immediate factor that gives rise to a specifically human form of reflection of reality - human consciousness.
Reality is revealed to a person in the objective stability of its features, in its isolation, independence from the subjective attitude of a person towards it, from its existing needs.
This is possible due to the fact that the generalized reflection of reality, developed by mankind, is fixed in the system of meanings (concepts, norms, knowledge, mode of action). A person finds a ready-made, historically formed system of meanings and masters it in the same way as it masters a tool.
The behavior of a modern cultural adult is the result of two different processes: the biological evolution of animals and the historical development of mankind.
AT phylogeny these are two independent lines. Man's adaptation to nature brings to life a system of behavior fundamentally different from that of animals, otherwise organized. This new system of behavior is formed upon reaching a certain stage of biological maturity, but without changing the biological type of a person.
AT ontogeny these two lines are merged into one, the child is simultaneously formed both as a biological being and as a product of cultural and historical development.
The history of the human psyche is the relationship of the recurring, base features of this world, regardless of human needs, in their objective, stable base properties.
Human labor activity :
accompanied by the use and production guns ;
work is done under conditions joint collective activity , so that a person enters in this process not only into certain relations with nature, but also with other people
The essence of the differences between the psyche of humans and animals:
1. Specific practical animals' thinking is subject to their direct impression of a given situation
2. A person is capable create and save tools, create for the future
3. Both man and animal pass on the experience of generations in the form instincts
both man and animal transmit individual experience in the form skills
, only a person transmits social experience
, i.e. ways of making tools, ways of communication, etc.
4. Differences in feelings.
5. Fundamentally different “ language" of animals and human speech
3.3. The development of consciousness in ontogeny. Higher mental functions
Assimilation or appropriation of socio-historical experience - a specifically human path of ontogenesis, completely absent in animals.
In an animal, the genetic basis of behavior is made up of unconditioned reflex mechanisms, instincts; in the course of individual life, they develop, form, adapt to changing elements of the external environment, this is the process of "deployment" of hereditary experience.
The process of assimilation of human species experience takes place in the individual life of the child, in its practical activity, which is mediated by an adult.
This process has been most thoroughly studied L.S. Vygotsky within cultural-historical theory of the development of consciousness , G the main principle of which is the historical understanding of mental processes. Proceeding from the fact that the psyche is determined by labor activity, Vygotsky puts forward the idea of "psychological tools" that are artificially made by mankind and represent an element of culture. Initially, they are turned externally to another person, then they turn to themselves, i.e. become ways to control their own mental processes.
The main provisions of the cultural-historical theory are as follows:
1. In the transition from animals to humans, a fundamental change in the relationship of the subject with the environment took place - thanks to the use of tools man was capable of mastering nature. (and not just adapt to it )
2. The ability to master nature for the person himself turned into the fact that he learned to master his own psyche Arbitrary forms of activity or higher mental functions appeared.
3. Just as a person masters nature with the help of tools, he also masters his own behavior with the help of tools, but only tools of a special kind - psychological, these psychological tools - signs. (a person is able to master his own psyche with the help of special psychological tools)
SIGNS - symbols that have a specific meaning developed in the history of culture:
- various forms of numbering and calculus
- mnemonic devices
- algebraic symbols
- works of art
- diagrams, maps, drawings
- symbols, etc.
The introduction of a sign into the structure of the mental function turns it into a higher, mediated function. When a person, for example, ties a knot in memory, he himself creates an additional stimulus, mediates his reaction with the help of a sign that acts as a way of remembering, or a psychological tool. This additional stimulus has no organic connection with the situation; therefore, there is an artificial sign means by which a person masters behavior: remembers, makes a choice, etc.
FROM by creating incentives-means, a person is freed from dependence on incentives-objects that are independent of him. With the help of signs, a person from the outside creates connections in the brain, controls the brain and through it his own body. There are certain differences between the lower and higher mental functions.
A sign is always first a means of social connection, a means of influencing another, and only then does it become a means of influencing oneself. Higher mental functions are internalized relations of the social order.
Higher and lower mental functions:
The ability to order oneself was born in the process of cultural development of a person from external relations of order-subordination. At first, the functions of the orderer and the executor were separated and the whole process was interpsychological, i.e. interpersonal, then these relations turned into relations with oneself, i.e. into intrapsychological. This is the process of internalization. In ontogeny, it is carried out in the same way.
Interiorization - the process of formation of internal structures of the psyche conditioned by the assimilation of structures and symbols of external social activity
Interiorization - the process of assigning signs to the child.
Stages of internalization
in ontogeny:
1) adult valid a word for a child
, prompting him to do something;
2) child adopts a way of addressing from an adult and begins to influence a word for an adult
;
3) child starts to affect a word for myself
(first in loud speech form, then - inner speech).
Those. not the deployment of the natural, but the appropriation of the artificial, culturally created - the general path of human ontogenesis. This path determines the social nature of her psyche.
3.4. Characteristics of Consciousness
The main psychological characteristics of consciousness as the highest level of mental reflection:
1. Consciousness contains knowledge about the external and internal world of a person. Co-knowledge (a body of knowledge)
2. Knowledge as the core of consciousness is colored by a complex fabric of emotional experiences
, intentions and interests. A person always somehow relates to what he reflects.
3. The distinction between subject and object, separation of the Self from the non-Self (the presence of self-consciousness)
4. Human consciousness has an active character. Activity(not only a form of reflection, but also the ability to transform the world)
5. The connection of human consciousness with language
(connection with speech, language as a system of signs)
Consciousness
- this is higher
, inherent only
man
and related with a speech
function brain
, consisting in a generalized, evaluative and purposeful reflection
and creative transformation of reality
, in preliminary mental construction of actions
and foreseeing their results, in reasonable regulation and self-control of behavior
human
3.5. Altered States of Consciousness
- hypnosis
- meditation
- drug effect
- condition before death
The waking state, the state of extraverted consciousness, has until recently been regarded by scientific psychology as the only normal aspect worthy of study. But more and more psychologists and physicists are turning to Eastern culture, which considers life in its entirety not as a chain of phenomena that needs to be explained, but rather as an integral part of the Universe, to the unity of which it is involved. This global unity is realized through states of meditation and trance.
Altered (or unusual) states of consciousness include such states that arise under the influence of: hypnosis, meditation, drugs, approaching death.
Even behavior that was traditionally considered abnormal (schizophrenia, depression) is now increasingly seen as a way to find inner balance and avoid the pressure of external reality. They should be understood as a normal expression of the inner world, and not as an "abnormality" of consciousness, which should be avoided.
Thus, consciousness is a mosaic of states that play a more or less significant role in both external and internal balance.
The main distinguishing feature of the human psyche is the presence of consciousness, and conscious reflection is such a reflection of objective reality, in which its objective stable properties are distinguished, regardless of the subject’s relationship to it.
The criterion for the appearance of the rudiments of the psyche in living organisms is the presence of sensitivity, that is, the ability to respond to vital environmental stimuli (sound, smell, etc.), which are signals of vital stimuli (food, danger) due to their objectively stable connection. The criterion of sensitivity is the ability to form conditioned reflexes. Reflex - a natural connection of an external or internal stimulus through the nervous system with a particular activity. The psyche arises and develops in animals precisely because otherwise they could not orient themselves in the environment and exist.
The human psyche is a qualitatively higher level than the psyche of animals. Consciousness, the human mind developed in the process of labor activity, which arises due to the need to carry out joint actions to obtain food during a sharp change in the living conditions of primitive man. And although the specific morphological features of a person have been stable for thousands of years, the development of the human psyche took place in the process of labor activity. Labor activity has a productive character: labor, carrying out the production process, is imprinted in its product (that is, there is a process of embodiment, objectification in the products of people's activities of their spiritual forces and abilities). Thus, the material, spiritual culture of mankind is an objective form of embodiment of the achievements of the mental development of mankind.
In the process of the historical development of society, a person changes the ways and methods of his behavior, transforms natural inclinations and functions into "higher mental functions" - specific and human, socially historically conditioned forms of memory, thinking, perception (logical memory, abstract logical thinking), mediated by the use of auxiliary means, speech signs created in the process of historical development. The unity of higher mental functions forms the consciousness of man.
Consciousness is the highest form of a generalized reflection of the objective stable properties and patterns of the surrounding world, characteristic of a person, the formation of an internal model of the external world in a person, as a result of which knowledge and transformation of the surrounding reality is achieved.
The functions of consciousness consist in the formation of the goals of activity, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and the prediction of their results, which ensures a reasonable regulation of human behavior and activity.
Consciousness develops in a person only in social contacts. In phylogeny, human consciousness develops and becomes possible only under conditions of active influence on nature, labor activity. Consciousness is possible only under the conditions of the existence of language, speech, which arises simultaneously with consciousness in the process of labor.
Development is a movement from simple forms and structures to higher, more complex ones.
The development of life, for example, is not a cycle of events, but a sequential process, a movement from simple to more complex forms of life. This development is associated with the complication of connections, forms of the movement of matter, the structure of material systems.
The process of development of nature cannot be imagined as a straight line. In its development, as A.I. Herzen, that "throws in different directions and never goes the right march forward." It also caused all variety of forms of existence of material bodies and the phenomena. So, for example, the development of organic matter went in thousands of directions and gave an immeasurable wealth of plant and animal species. Human evolution is only one of the lines of development of the organic world.
Scientists of the materialistic direction consider the human psyche as a property of highly organized matter, which is the product of a long (millions of years) development. The emergence and development of the psyche are associated with the emergence and development of organic nature. The development of living nature, the development of the psyche goes from elementary, simplest forms to the highest manifestations of human logical thinking, consciousness.
The history of the development of the human psyche had a prehistory associated with the biological evolution of living organisms.
To understand the prehistory of the development of consciousness, the teachings of Ch. Darwin (evolutionary theory) played an important role, which revealed the main ways of the development of nature, its laws. However, when analyzing the problem of the emergence of man, Charles Darwin could not find out the driving factors of development, under the influence of which the animal ancestor of man turned into a living being. He assumed that man arose according to the biological laws of natural selection, but could not rise to an understanding of the leading role of social production, creates new, different from biological, socio-historical laws of development.
To understand how the human psyche, his consciousness, originated, it is necessary to consider how it originated in the process of evolution of living forms, how it developed over many millions of years from simple, elementary forms to higher ones.
Exploring the nature of matter, material scientists study various forms of motion of matter, since motion is a way of existence of matter, its internal property. Immovable matter does not exist at all. Everything in the Universe, all organic and inorganic nature, is in a state of motion, change and development.
All types of matter, ranging from inanimate, inorganic and ending with the highest complex matter - the human brain, inherent image quality, that is, the ability to respond to influences. Forms of reflection depend on the forms of existence of matter: reflection is manifested in the ability to respond to external influences in accordance with the nature of the impact and the form of existence of matter. The highest form of reflection is mental reflection, and the highest form of mental reflection is svidomist.
This point of view did not emerge immediately.
There are several approaches to solving the problem of the emergence of the psyche:
1) "anthropopsychism", which is based on the idea, which comes from Descartes and is supported by some scientists today, that the psyche is inherent only in man;
2) "panpsychism" J.B. Robin, G. Fechner and others, who considered the psyche to be a property of any matter;
3) "biopsychism" - the recognition of the psyche as a property of only living matter (T. Hobbes, W. Wundt, E. Haeckel, etc.);
4) the concept of "neuropsychism", put forward by C. Darwin and G. Spencer, which is most widely used both in modern physiology and psychology. Behind it, the psyche is inherent not in any matter at all, and not only living, but only in organisms that have a nervous system.
In inanimate nature, reflection can manifest itself as a mechanical, physical or chemical interaction of bodies or substances (a wave and a stone, a sunbeam and a water surface, ozone after a thunderstorm, etc.).
With the advent of life on Earth, living matter acquires special properties. A common property of all living organisms is irritation - the ability of a living organism to respond to external environmental influences by certain biological processes. Irritability is a necessary condition for the exchange of substances between the organism and the environment. This is a biological form of display.
Let's see how it manifests itself.
The animal responds with activity (external and internal) to direct influences, which in themselves have a positive or negative effect on the organism. So, for example, nutrients dissolved in water cause the process of assimilation in ciliates, that is, their assimilation. The touch of a foreign body to the shell of the amoeba causes the capture process (regardless of the properties of this body).
Thus, with the emergence of life, reflection becomes qualitatively different. In inanimate nature, an object remains passive with regard to influences, and in living nature beings are active, they selectively respond to influences due to the ability to self-regulate.
It should be noted that recently there have been publications that plants are characterized by complex forms of response to external influences. The elementary movements carried out by plants are called tropisms (the sunflower returns for the sun; the mimosa curls up when touched; the sundew, having captured an insect, closes the petals of a flower, etc.).
Complex manifestations of plant response are also described. It is known that with the help of electrodes attached to plants, it is possible to determine their bioelectrical activity. If a beside with the plant to which the electrodes are attached, break another, then an increase in the bioelectric potential is recorded. Moreover, the return to the table with plants of the one who broke this flower again causes the same reaction that the plant "recognizes" him. A similar reaction was observed in plants when a shrimp was dipped into boiling water. Of course, such phenomena require experimental mass confirmation, but they indicate the complexity of the manifestation of reflection forms.
Irritability is the basis for the emergence of a higher level of reflection - mental.
Psychic reflection arises at a certain stage in the development of the animal world in the form of the ability to feel.
The ability to feel sensitivity - manifested in response to such environmental influences, on which the life of the organism does not directly depend, but which signal biologically significant environmental influences. For example, the vibration of the web, caused by insects getting into it, is not directly related to the needs of the spider, but it is for him a signal that food is nearby. A slight rustling for a frog does not by itself support its life and is not harmful to it, but it is a signal for it about the presence of food or danger. The role of a signal can be performed by sounds, smells, colors and other qualities of objects and their combinations.
The emergence in an animal of the ability to distinguish between individual stimuli, which play a signal role in adapting it to the external environment, is the beginning of the development of the psyche.
Thanks to the ability to reflect at least elementary connections between stimuli, a mechanism for predicting the expected event is produced. This provides an opportunity to prepare for the reflection of the impact that is to take place. (leading reflection). For example, insects by smell, sound find food, individuals of the opposite sex; sounds and smells are for them a signal of danger and the like.
So, the psyche performs a signal function in the adaptation of animals to the external environment.
Appearance and development sensitivity - a new level of display activity - are inextricably linked with the complication of the way of life of animals and the development of their nervous system, sensory organs and organs of movement.
The improvement of the bodily organization of animals under the influence of their way of life took place in two opposite directions: firstly, towards an increasing specialization of the sense organs (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, etc.) and organs of movement (legs, wings) second, towards the centralization of the nervous system: from the reticular (jellyfish), nodal (worms, insects) to the nervous system of vertebrates.
In vertebrates, the brain and its higher department, the cerebral cortex, are developing more and more actively. An increase in the volume and role of the cerebral cortex is called corticalization. The greater the development of the nervous system and brain of an animal, the higher the level of its psyche.
The whole lengthy process of mental development consists of two qualitatively different periods:
o the development of the psyche in animals, which is subject to the laws of heredity, variability and natural selection;
o the development of the psyche - consciousness in a person, which is determined by socio-historical patterns.
A.N. Leontiev in his book "Problems of the Development of the Psyche" proposed a hypothesis about the stage and level of development of mental reflection from the simplest animals to humans. Later, it was refined on the basis of the latest zoopsychological data and developed in the works of the Soviet psychologist K.E. Fabry. According to the views of Leontiev-Fabry on the development of mental reflection and behavior from animals to humans, a table "Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior of animals" was formed (see Table 4.1).
Table 4 .one. Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior of animals
(According to A.N. Leontiev and K.E. Fabry)
|
Stages and levels mental reflection, its characteristics |
Features of behavior corresponding to a given stage and level |
Types of living beings on this level |
||
|
I. The stage of the elementary sensory psyche. |
||||
|
A. The lowest level Primitive elements of sensitivity. Developed irritability |
A. Clear reactions to biologically significant properties of the environment through a change in the speed of the direction of movement. Elementary forms of movements. Weak behavior flexibility. The ability to respond to biologically neutral, lifeless properties of the environment has been formed. Weak, non-purposeful motor activity |
A. The simplest. Many lower multicellular organisms living in the aquatic environment |
||
|
B. Top level The presence of feelings. The appearance of the most important organ of manipulation - the jaws. Ability to form elementary reflexes |
B. Clear reactions to biologically neutral stimuli. Developed motor activity is associated with the exit from the water to land. The ability to avoid adverse environmental conditions, move away from them, actively search for positive stimuli. Individual experience and training play a minor role. Rigid innate programs are of primary importance in behavior. |
B. Higher (annelid) worms, gastropods (snails), some other invertebrates |
||
|
II. Stage of perceptual psyche |
||||
|
A. low level Display of external reality in the form of images of objects, integration, unification of properties that affect the holistic image. The main organ of manipulation is the jaw |
A. Formation of motor skills. The predominance of rigid, genetically programmed components. The movements are quite varied and complex (diving, crawling, walking, running, jumping, climbing, flying, etc.). Active search for positive stimuli, avoidance of negative ones, developed protective behavior |
A. Fishes and other lower vertebrates, and in part some higher invertebrates, arthropods and cephalopods. Insects |
||
|
B. Higher level Elementary forms of thinking (problem solving). Development of a certain "picture of the world" |
B. Highly developed instinctive forms of behavior. Ability to learn |
B. Higher vertebrates (birds, some mammals) |
||
|
B. high level. Allocation in practical activity of a special, tentative-research, preparatory phase. The ability to solve the same problem in different ways. Transferring the found principle of solving the problem to new conditions. Creation and use of primitive tools. The ability to cognize the environment, regardless of the existing biological needs. Vision and accounting of causal relationships between phenomena. |
B. Isolation of special organs of manipulation: paws and hands. Development of exploratory forms of behavior with a wide use of previously acquired knowledge, skills and abilities |
V. Monkeys |
||
In the process of biological evolution of animals, three qualitatively different stages in the development of the psyche are distinguished (A. N. Leontiev):
o stage of elementary sensitivity - sensory;
o stage of objective perception - perceptual;
o simple stage intellectual behaviour.
At the stage of elementary sensory psyche, the animal reacts only to certain influences on it of the properties of objects of the external world that have a certain biological significance for it, that is, they are associated with those actions on which the realization of the basic biological functions of animals depends. Reflections of reality at this stage are presented in the form of elementary sensations. Sensory reflection is observed in animals with reticulate and nodal nervous systems. They distinguish individual properties from the environment: vibration, sounds, smells, colors, which have an analytical signal value for animals and orient animals in the outside world (the caterpillar curls up in response to touch; the bee flies to flowers by smell). Touch and smell signal other vital influences.
All mammals with a sufficiently developed brain are at the perceptual stage of mental reflection. Its reflective function is richer, and its regulatory function is more perfect. This stage is characterized by the ability to synthetically display various properties of one object, often complex (the dog recognizes the owner by a number of signs: voice, clothes, smell). Representation is formed, memory is improved. But some of the properties of the object are more significant for animals (as a signal), while others play a lesser role.
For the development of the psyche, the way of life of animals is of great importance. Birds and fish that live in a monotonous environment have a less developed psyche than many land animals.
Leading for these animals is, as in the previous stage, instinctive activity, but the opposite reaction occurs to things, images. There are organs of perception that work on the basis of the interaction of a group of analyzers. There is a reaction to distant stimuli: the dog develops a reflex to the call and food. the food was shown in another room and only then they gave a call - the dog opened the door and found the food himself. This example indicates that at this stage animals have an image, representation, memory, as well as the ability to respond to properties that determine the mode of action, operation, gives rise to the development of a new form of consolidation of animal experience - skills.
The most organized animals rise to one more stage of development - the stage intellect, which is characterized by complex forms of reflection of reality.
Essential for this stage of development of the psyche is the ability to solve the so-called "two-phase" problems. In the preparation phase, the animal's actions are guided not by the object to which they are directed, not by the ultimate goal, but by what is only a means to achieve this goal. The second phase of "activity" is already directed directly at the object that is its immediate factor. The same task can be solved in different ways using different operations.
The intellectual behavior of animals is characterized by the following main features:
o in difficult conditions, animals after repeated "trial and error" find solutions;
o if you put the animal in similar conditions - they immediately find a solution;
o if the conditions are somewhat modified, they find solutions, which means that they tend to carrying;
o solve "two-phase tasks" (some psychologists say that monkeys can also solve "three-phase tasks", which is already an indicative basis of activity).
At the same time, in non-standard situations, the limitations of the intellectual behavior of animals are clearly manifested. So, in a well-known experiment with a monkey that extinguished a fire with water from a tank, when conditions changed (the fire was on a raft in the middle of the river, and the water tank was on another flesh, which was difficult to get to), she tried to solve the problem by the old method - she got to the tank with water instead of using water from the river.
