There are three main stages in the development of the psyche in animals - the elementary sensory psyche and intelligence according to the following criteria: the form of mental reflection, the leading type of behavior and structure nervous system.

Stage of elementary sensory psyche. The mental reflection of animals at this stage has the form of sensitivity only to individual properties of the environment, i.e. form of elemental sensations. Accordingly, the behavior of animals corresponds to one or another individual property.

Taking into account the evolution within the stage, the lower and higher levels are distinguished in it. At the lowest level, there are organisms that stand on the verge of the plant and animal world, for example, flagellates. Representatives of the lower level are also sponges, protozoa, coelenterates, lower worms. At the highest level there is a large number of multicellular invertebrates and some species of vertebrates. They are characterized enough complex structure nervous system, complex and highly differentiated organization of the motor apparatus. Their forms of behavior are more complex and varied. However, they also reflect the individual properties of the environment, rather than holistic things.

In the process of evolutionary development of animals at the stage of elementary sensory psyche, many of them developed a rather complex form of behavior - instinct. Instinct- this is behavior that meets hereditarily programmed, stereotyped forms of actions through which an animal adapts to conditions without special training environment.

Stage of perceptual psyche It is characterized by the ability to reflect external reality no longer in the form of individual elementary sensations caused by individual properties of the environment, but in the form of a reflection of a set of qualities, things. At this stage, the lowest and highest levels are also distinguished. Most of the currently existing vertebrates are at different levels of the stage of the perceptual psyche. At the highest level are all mammals.

In animals at the stage of the perceptual psyche, a more complex type of plasticity is formed. individual behavior, the mechanism of which is the analysis and synthesis of environmental conditions, carried out on the basis of a more developed form of mental reflection. material substrate new form reflection and a new type of behavior was the complication of the structure and functions of the central nervous system and, above all, the development of the cerebral cortex. Significant changes also occurred in the development of the sense organs, primarily vision. At the same time, the organs of movement also developed.

At the stage of the perceptual psyche, the animal also retains instinctive behavior, but it becomes much more plastic and adapts to the specific conditions of the individual's life.

stage of intellect. At this stage there is a small number of species of the most highly organized mammals - anthropoid apes. The distinctive ability of animal intelligence lies in the fact that, in addition to reflecting individual things, they have a reflection of holistic situations and relationships between objects. In the behavior of animals, an even more complex form arises - problem solving.

The complication of the forms of mental reflection and the behavior of animals at the stage of intellect is interconnected with the complication of the structure of the brain, the development of cortical structures. The most radical anatomical and physiological transformations took place in the frontal lobes of the brain, which regulate intellectual behavior.

The stage of intelligence of great apes represents the upper limit of the development of the psyche of animals. Then quality begins new stage in the history of the development of the psyche - a complex and lengthy process of the historical and evolutionary development of Homo sapiens, or "reasonable man."

Human consciousness arose and developed during the social period of its existence, and the history of the formation of consciousness does not go beyond the limits of those several tens of thousands of years that we attribute to the history of human society. The main condition for the emergence and development of human consciousness is joint productive speech-mediated instrumental activity of people. This is an activity that requires cooperation, communication and interaction of people with each other. It involves the creation of a product that all participants joint activities recognized as the goal of their cooperation.

Of particular importance for the development of human consciousness is the productive, creative nature of human activity. Consciousness involves a person's awareness of not only the external world, but also himself, his sensations, images, ideas and feelings.

Stages of development of the psyche according to Leontiev.

Introduction.

In this lecture, an analysis of the problem of the development of the psyche in phylogenesis will be carried out. First, we will consider A.N. Leontiev’s concept of three stages in the evolution of the psyche, and in the next lecture we will trace the development of motor activity, the nervous system and behavior, starting from unicellular animals and ending with mammals.

A.N.Leontiev in his concept of the evolution of the psyche proceeded from the following basic position. Each new stage of mental development began with the complication of the interaction of the organism with the external environment (that is, activity). It was the complication of activity, in his deep conviction, that led to the complication of mental reflection; At the same time, qualitative leaps in the mental development of animals in phylogenesis were associated with a cardinal change in the processes of their interaction with the external environment. In turn, a new form of mental reflection led to further development and the complexity of activities. It turns out something like development in a spiral. He argued that “every reflection is formed in the process of animal activity; Thus, the property of the object affecting it will be reflected in the sensations of animals, is determined by whether the animal is really connected in the process of adaptation to the environment, in its activity with this object and how does it relate to him. On the other hand, any activity of an animal, mediated by the influences it feels, takes place in accordance with how the given influence is reflected in the sensations of the animal. It is clear that the main thing in this complex unity of reflection and activity is the activity of the animal, which practically connects it with objective reality; the secondary, derivative is the mental reflection of the influencing properties of this reality.

A.N.Leontiev also drew attention to the fact that the biological and mental development of animals may not coincide. That is, an animal that is at a higher stage of biological development does not necessarily have a developed psyche. For example, from his point of view, some unicellular animal organisms are superior in terms of mental development to some multicellular ones, in particular, intestinal animals.

A.N.Leontiev identified three stages in the development of the psyche in phylogeny: the stage of the elementary sensory psyche, the stage of the perceptual psyche and the stage of intellect.

Elementary sensory psyche.

Primitive unicellular heterotrophs, from which the development of the animal kingdom began, were at the lowest stage of the development of the psyche, which A.N. Leontiev called stage of elementary sensory psyche. An elementary sensory psyche, from his point of view, is also inherent in primitive multicellular organisms (hydras, jellyfish, worms), as well as more complexly organized animals, for example, arthropods and some groups of chordates.

In order to understand what are the features of mental reflection at the stage of elementary sensory psyche, it is necessary to analyze the features of the activity characteristic of animals at this stage of development of the psyche. Let us turn to the example given by A.N. Leontiev in his book “Problems of the Development of the Psyche”. Consider the hunting of a spider: when an insect enters its trapping net, the spider perceives the vibration of the threads of the web and goes towards the source of this vibration. Then he kills the victim with the poison of his glands, entangles him in a cocoon and injects a digestive secret there, which digests food. What is causing this behavior? Vibration or type of insect? Vital or neutral sign of this situation? Second question - what is the purpose of this activity? To a vibration or to a vital sign of this situation - an insect? It turns out that what causes this activity and what it is directed to is a vibration, and not an insect. This is proved by the following experiment. If you touch the web with a sounding tuning fork, then the spider behaves in exactly the same way as if it were some kind of insect. He rushes to him, wraps him in a web and even tries to strike with his jaws. Under normal circumstances, the tuning fork never elicits such outward activity from the spider. The spider exhibits similar behavior with various other objects that cause the web to vibrate. From this experiment, it can be seen that hunting in a spider is regulated by a single property - vibration, which has acquired biological meaning in the process of evolution. Analyzing this food-procuring behavior of the insect, A.N. Leontiev suggested that reflection during this activity has the form of sensitivity to a separate influencing property - to vibration. In this way, not the whole object is reflected, but some of its individual properties or a set of properties. Why? If the spider during this activity reflected not some one property of the stimulus situation, in particular, vibration, but a vibrating object as something integral, which consists not only of vibration or the sum of other properties, then he would not make senseless attack movements along in relation to the tuning fork.

The reflection of animals at this stage of development of the psyche is subject to law of heterogeneous summation, which, as shown above, was established on the basis of experiments on butterflies by N. Tinbergen. According to one of the interpretations of this law, subjectively, the external world for an organism is a set of individual sensations that reflect individual signs and properties. For example, for a male marigold butterfly, a female is a combination of such features as lightness, size and mobility. If an object has at least one of these features in the appropriate quantitative expression, then it is perceived as an object for pursuit and mating.

Thus, the stage of the elementary sensory psyche, from the point of view of A.N. Leontiev, is characterized by the following features. First, the activity of animals corresponds to one or another separate influencing property or a set of properties of the stimulus situation. Secondly, the reflection of reality has the form of sensitivity to individual influencing properties.

Perceptual psyche.

The transition to a qualitatively new stage in the development of the psyche was associated with a qualitative change in the structure of animal activity. Let's consider the structure of food-procuring activity in animals, which, from the point of view of A.N. Leontiev, are at the stage of perceptual psyche - in a dog and an aquarium fish in the conditions of a bypass movement. The dog is placed in an aviary, in which there is a partition on the way to food. Accordingly, the fish is placed in an aquarium, where there is also an obstacle in the form of a gauze mesh on the way to food. Both types of animals quickly learn to bypass the partition in order to get food. The bypass movement that both the fish and the dog make is, from the point of view of A.N. Leontiev, a special side of the activity, which he called the operation. An operation is that side of an activity that meets the conditions in which the object stimulating this activity is given.

A.N.Leontiev believed that both the fish and the dog are, in accordance with the level of development of their interaction with the environment, at the stage of the perceptual psyche, since they have operations. But, from the point of view of mental reflection, an aquarium fish still has an elementary sensory psyche. This can be shown in the following experiment. If you remove the barrier, the dog immediately stops making a detour and runs directly to the food. The fish, even after the disappearance of the barrier, will swim along the same trajectory for quite a long time. What conclusion did A.N.Leontiev draw from this experiment? The dog probably perceives the septum as a separate object that is not directly related to food. The fish perceives the barrier as one of the properties of food, as food itself, as something without which food cannot exist. Therefore, she makes a detour movement over and over again, since she probably “thinks” that without this movement, food will not be available to her.

A.N.Leontiev argued that the appearance of operations in the structure of animal activity was one of the main reasons for the emergence of a qualitatively new type of mental reflection - perceptual reflection, reflection, in which the animal no longer perceives individual properties, but integral objects. Pisces also perform a bypass movement, therefore, they already have operations in the structure of their activity, that is, objectively, their activity corresponds to the level of the perceptual psyche. But, as was shown above, subjectively they are still at the level of the elementary sensory psyche, since they perceive not integral objects, but individual properties of these objects. This contradiction (inconsistency) between the already high level of activity and the still primitive level of reflection, according to A.N. Leontiev, led in the course of evolution to the appearance of objectivity of perception, that is, to the appearance of animals with a perceptual psyche. A.N.Leontiev writes: “If at the stage of elementary sensory psyche the differentiation of influencing properties was associated with their simple association around the dominant stimulus, now for the first time there are processes of integration of influencing properties into a single holistic image, their unification as properties of one and the same thing. The surrounding reality is now reflected by animals in the form of more or less dissected images of individual things.

In addition to the reason indicated, the prerequisites for the emergence of the perceptual psyche in the course of the phylogenetic development of animals were the following.

First, this increasing the variety of forms of sensitivity In primitive animal species, as a rule, only one form of sensitivity is most developed. So the earthworm lives mainly in the world of tactile and chemical sensitivity. But with the development of interaction with the environment in the process of phylogenesis, many other sense organs begin to appear and develop in animals, in particular, distant ones - sight, smell, hearing. With the development of a variety of sense organs, animals get the opportunity to perceive an object at once in many parameters and modalities.- lick, smell, touch, see, hear, etc. This was one of the most important prerequisites for the emergence of the integrity of perception. It is known that the process of perception, in contrast to the process of sensation, as a rule, requires the interaction of at least two sensory systems. For example, the emergence of a visual image of perception in an adult is associated with the integration of information from the visual sensory system and signals from the proprioceptive sensory system, which informs the brain about the movement of the eyes in the course of looking at an object. In a child, in addition, in the course of the formation of visual perception, the information coming from the proprioceptive system associated with the registration of the position of the forelimbs and fingers is of decisive importance.

Secondly, the prerequisite for the emergence of the perceptual psyche was development of the nervous system, which received a powerful impetus in connection with the development of a variety of forms of sensitivity and motor activity. In the head section of the nervous system, the so-called associative areas necessarily appear, which are the place of integration of information coming from different sense organs.. In the head ganglion of insects, such areas correspond to the so-called mushroom bodies, and in the brain of vertebrates, to the associative nuclei of the thalamus and the cerebral cortex.

Thirdly, a prerequisite for the emergence of perception and its development was complication of physical activity, which, as will be shown later, was associated with the appearance of distant sense organs, a musculoskeletal system based on powerful and fast striated muscles, with the appearance of organs of external movements - paired limbs in vertebrates and various limbs in arthropods.

Thus, for the perceptual psyche, from the point of view of A.N. Leontiev, the following features are characteristic. First, the structure of animal activity includes operations. Secondly, the mental reflection of external reality is characterized by the perception of integral things. In other words, in such animals, along with the processes of sensation, there are also processes of perception.

stage of intelligence.

Finally, A.N. Leontiev singled out the stage of intellect in the development of the psyche. At this stage of mental development, from his point of view, there are higher mammals, in particular, apes and humans. Let us consider the structure of the activity of great apes under the conditions of the following experiment. A hungry animal is placed in a cage with a short stick. Outside the cage lies a long stick and fruit. The monkey first needs to get a long stick with a short one, and then the last one to get the fruit. The solution of this problem takes place in two stages - at the first stage, you need to perform a certain action (get a large stick with a small stick), which prepares the action at the second stage (get a fruit with a big stick). The final action is already directly related to the satisfaction of a biologically important need. A.N.Leontiev called such problems two-phase problems. From his point of view, animals that are able to solve such problems are already at the next stage in the development of the psyche - at the stage of intellect.

What is the specificity of two-phase tasks? First phase ( preparation phase) without connection with the second is devoid of any biological meaning whatsoever. It is meaningless if the animal does not foresee the consequences of actions taken at this phase of solving the problem. Second phase ( implementation phase) is directly related to the satisfaction of some biological need. The main difference between these phases lies in the fact that if the behavior in the final phase is both stimulated by food and directed towards food, then the behavior in the preparatory phase, although stimulated by food, is directed not at it, but at the stick. It is the preparation phase that, from the point of view of A.N. Leontiev, feature intellectual behaviour. In addition to the above features, it is characterized by the following features.

First, during this phase the animal makes various trial movements. But these are not chaotic random movements that randomly lead to the solution of the problem. Animals produce samples of various previously developed operations. Each monkey, for example, during his life accumulates a solid baggage of operations worked out in various conditions. If it has already encountered a similar situation before, then it applies the operation available in its stock, if the situation is new, then the monkey begins to sort through various operations until it achieves the desired success with one of them. For example, a monkey needs to open a box, closed with a special latch, in which there is food. Suppose she had never faced such a task before. First, she tries to gnaw on the corner of the box, then she tries to penetrate deep into it through its cracks, if this fails, then she tries to gnaw off the latch, then she turns the box over, in the end, she begins to manipulate the latch and, finally, opens it.

Secondly, operations in animals with intelligence cease to be fixedly connected with the situations in which they were originally developed. In other words, animals can transfer operations freely from one situation to another. Thus, operations at the stage of intellect, as it were, begin to live their own destiny.

We examined the specifics of the intellectual stage of the development of the psyche from the side of the structure of activity. Formerly a single activity is differentiated into two phases of different quality - into preparation phase and implementation phase. What is the specificity of mental reflection in animals at this stage of development of the psyche? A.N. Leontiev believed that animals with intelligence reflect not only individual things, but also their relationships and connections with each other. The moment a monkey takes out a long stick with a short stick, he not only reflects these sticks, but he also understands the connection between this activity and the end result, that is, he reflects the connection between the short stick and the fruit that he will get with the long stick.

Thus, the stage of intellect, from the point of view of A.N. Leontiev, is characterized by the following features. The activity is differentiated into two phases of different quality - the phase of preparation and the phase of implementation. Animals with intelligence reflect not only individual things, but also their relationships and connections with each other.

Regarding the formation and development of the psyche and behavior in animals, there is whole line hypotheses. One of them, concerning the stages and levels of development of mental reflection, from the simplest animals to humans, is put forward by A.N. Leontiev. At the basis of the stages of mental development described by him, Leontiev put the signs of the most profound qualitative changes that the psyche has undergone in the process of evolution of the animal world. According to this concept, a number of stages and levels can be distinguished in the development of the psyche and behavior of animals. A.N. Leontiev identified two main stages in the development of the psyche: elementary sensory and perceptual. The first includes two levels: the lowest and the highest, and the second - three levels: the lowest, the highest and the highest. As noted by A.N. Leontiev, in the process of evolutionary development, these processes are closely interconnected. The improvement of movements leads to an improvement in the adaptive activity of the body, which, in turn, contributes to the complication of the nervous system, expanding its capabilities, creates conditions for the development of new types of activity and forms of reflection. All this taken together contributes to the improvement of the psyche. A clear, most significant line runs between the elementary sensory and perceptual psyches, marking the main milestone in the grandiose process of the evolution of the psyche. Such a division, however, is too superficial and does not cover the entire diversity of the animal world. Later, taking into account many studies related to behavior, this hypothesis was finalized and refined by K.E. Fabry. K.E. Fabry believes that both within the elementary sensory and within the perceptual psyche, one should single out significantly different levels of mental development: the lower and the higher, while allowing the existence of intermediate levels. It is important to note that large systematic groups of animals do not always and do not fully fit into this framework. This is inevitable, since within the limits of large taxon - (from lat. taxare - evaluate) a set of discrete objects, connected by a certain commonality of properties and features that characterize this set. This can be explained by the fact that the qualities of the highest mental level are always born at the previous level. From the point of view of A.N. Severtsov, changes in living conditions give rise to the need to change behavior, and this then leads to appropriate morphological changes in motor and sensory areas and in the central nervous system. But not immediately and even not always functional changes entail morphological changes. Moreover, in higher animals, purely functional changes without morphological rearrangements are often quite sufficient, and sometimes even the most effective. adaptive changes in behavior only. Therefore, behavior in combination with the multifunctionality of the motor organs provides animals with the most flexible adaptation to new living conditions. These functional and morphological transformations determine the quality and content of mental reflection in the process of evolution. At the same time, innate and acquired behavior are not successive steps on the evolutionary ladder, but develop and become more complex together, as two components of one single process. Progressive development of instinctive, genetically fixed behavior corresponds to progress in the field of individually variable behavior. Instinctive behavior reaches its greatest complexity precisely in the higher animals, and this progress entails the development and complication of their forms of learning.

Sensory stage (or stage of elementary sensitivity) - at this stage, animals reflect individual properties of objects and phenomena, there is no holistic reflection of objects;

The lowest level - reticular (diffuse) nervous system - coelenterates

The highest level is the nodal (ganglionic) nervous system - worms.

Perceptual stage (perception) - animals at this stage are able to reflect not only individual properties of objects and phenomena, but also objects and phenomena as a whole.

Lower level: this stage is typical for animals with a ganglionic nervous system with the allocation of various departments. The rudiments of the brain appear, the abdominal region - all arthropods.

Highest level: tubular nervous system - in chordates (lancelets, fish, freshwater, mammals).

The stage of intellect (manual thinking) - animals are able to reflect simple connections between objects, reflect an objective situation, and solve two-phase tasks.

The lowest level - animals in which the central nervous system already appears and the cerebral cortex appears (dogs, cats, dolphins, monkeys).

The first - the stage of the elementary sensory psyche - has two levels: the lowest and the highest. The first stage is characterized by a sensory mode, or level of sensations.

The second - the stage of the perceptual psyche - has three levels: the lowest, the highest and the highest. The allocation of these two stages of the development of the psyche is based on the main characteristics of the methods for obtaining information about the world around us. For the second - a perceptual way, or level of perception

15. General view about forms of behavior: instinct, learning, skill, intellect

Behavior is understood as a certain way organized activity that connects the organism with the environment. While in man the inner plane of consciousness is differentiated from behavior, in animals the psyche and behavior form a direct unity, so that the study of their psyche must be included as a component in the study of their behavior. Instinct is a set of innate components of the behavior and psyche of animals and humans. An integral part of instinctive behavior is its least plastic component. Animals have genetically programmed forms of behavior that are characteristic of a given species and are associated primarily with the food, protective and reproductive spheres. Fairly constant and independent of local changes in the external environment. Conclusions about the "blindness" or "reasonableness" of instincts are incorrect: one should speak, respectively, of their fixity, rigidity and biological expediency. The rigidity of the instinct is also expedient - it reflects the adaptability of the animal to the constancy of its living conditions. The "mistakes" of instinct when an animal enters conditions unusual for it can be compared with "mistakes", illusions of perception; instincts are characterized by the same "irresistibility" and even "coercion". Those and other "mistakes" arise as a result of the automatic operation of involuntary mechanisms - correct, but found themselves in "wrong", artificial, unlikely or even impossible situations in nature. According to ethological theory, instincts are conditioned by the action of external and internal factors. External include special stimuli - key incentives. Internal factors include endogenous stimulation of the centers of instinctive actions, leading to a decrease in the threshold of their excitation. In this sense, the facts of the expansion of the spectrum of stimuli that cause instinctive actions are very indicative, especially the facts of the spontaneous appearance of the latter. According to the model of K. Lorenz, usually the endogenous activity of instinctive actions is inhibited and blocked. Appropriate stimuli release the blockage, acting as a key, hence the name. Nowadays, views on the question of the relationship between instinct and learning have changed significantly. Previously, forms of behavior based on instinct and learning were opposed. It was believed that instinctive actions are strictly programmed and their individual “finishing” is impossible. Later it turned out that this is far from being the case: many instinctive actions must go through a period of formation and training in the course of the individual development of the animal - the period of obligate learning. So many instinctive acts are "finished" in the individual experience of the animal, and this completion is also programmed. It ensures the adaptation of instinctive action to environmental conditions. Of course, the plasticity of instinctive action is limited and determined genetically. Much greater plasticity is provided by optional learning - the process of mastering new, purely individual forms of behavior. If during obligate learning all individuals of a species improve in the same species-typical actions, then with optional learning they master individual-special forms of behavior, adapting them to specific conditions of existence. Different content was put into the concept of instinct at different times:

1) sometimes instinct was opposed to consciousness, and in relation to a person, it served to designate passions, impulsive, thoughtless behavior, "animal nature" in the human psyche, etc.;

2) in other cases, complex unconditioned reflexes, nervous mechanisms for coordinating vital movements, etc., were called instinct.

In phylogeny, before learning, instinctive behavior helped living beings survive and adapt. The next step in evolution was learning (first obligate, then optional learning). The next step in acquiring individual experience after learning is training, education and upbringing.

Learning in the broad sense (in this sense, the term is more often used by foreign authors) includes learning, and then it is understood simply as a change in behavior due to the acquisition of new experience. Types of learning. Usually, behavioral learning includes such processes as habituation, imprinting, imprinting, sensitization, associative learning (anchoring, the formation of simple conditioned reflexes), operant learning, including instrumental learning (trial and error) and creative learning, sequential learning

Separately, social learning should be singled out - learning social life: how to live among people (or, in the case of animal behavior, how to live among other animals).

With regard to learning as the acquisition of knowledge, there are three types of learning: knowledge building, restructuring and tuning.

A person has several types of learning. The first and simplest of them unites man with all other living beings with a developed central nervous system. This is learning by the mechanism of imprinting, i.e., fast, automatic, almost instantaneous in comparison with the long learning process of adapting the body to the specific conditions of its life using forms of behavior practically ready from birth. For example, it is enough to touch the inner surface of the palm of a newborn with some hard object, as his fingers automatically tighten. Through the described mechanism of imprinting, numerous inborn instincts are formed, including motor, sensory and others. According to the tradition that has developed since the time of I.P. Pavlov, such forms of behavior are called unconditioned reflexes, although the word “instinct” is more suitable for their name. Such forms of behavior are usually genotypically programmed and hardly amenable to change. The second type of learning is conditioned reflex. This type of learning involves the emergence of new forms of behavior as conditioned responses to an initially neutral stimulus that did not previously cause a specific reaction. Stimuli that are capable of generating a conditioned reflex reaction of the organism must be perceived by it. All the main elements of the future reaction must also already be available in the body. Through conditioned reflex learning, they are connected to each other in new system, which provides the implementation of a more complex form of behavior than elementary innate reactions. The third type of learning is operant. With this type of learning, knowledge, skills and abilities are acquired by the so-called trial and error method. It consists of the following. The task or situation faced by the individual generates in him a complex of various reactions: instinctive, unconditional, conditional. The body consistently tries each of them in practice to solve the problem and automatically evaluates the result achieved. That of the reactions or that random combination of them that leads to the best result, i.e., ensures the optimal adaptation of the organism to the situation that has arisen, stands out from the rest and is fixed in the experiment. This is learning by trial and error. All the types of learning described are found in both humans and animals and represent the main ways in which various living beings acquire life experience. But a person also has special higher ways learning, rarely or almost never found in other living beings. This is, firstly, learning through direct observation of the behavior of other people, as a result of which a person immediately adopts and assimilates the observed forms of behavior. Secondly, this is verbal learning, i.e., the acquisition of new experience by a person through language. Thanks to him, a person has the opportunity to transfer to other people who speak speech, and to receive the necessary abilities, knowledge, skills and abilities, describing them verbally in sufficient detail and understandably for the student.

SKILL (automated action, secondary automatism) - an action formed by repetition, characterized by a high degree of mastery and the absence of element-by-element conscious regulation and control. There are perceptual, intellectual and motor skills, as well as: 1) initially automated skills, formed without awareness of their components; 2) secondarily automated skills, formed with preliminary awareness of the components of the action; they more easily become consciously controlled, more quickly improved and rebuilt. Through the formation of skills, a twofold effect is achieved: the action is performed quickly and accurately, and there is a release of consciousness, which can be directed to mastering more complex actions. This process is of fundamental importance and underlies the development of all skills, knowledge and abilities. Together with knowledge and skills, skills provide a correct reflection in ideas and thinking: the world, the laws of nature and society, people's relationships, a person's place in society and his behavior. All this helps to determine your position in relation to reality. Skills are characterized by varying degrees of generalization: the wider the class of objects in relation to which the skill can be implemented, the more generalized and labile it is. The process of skill formation includes the definition of its components and such mastery of the operation, which allows you to achieve the highest performance based on the improvement and consolidation of connections between components, automation and a high level of action readiness for reproduction. The study of skills began with motor skills, but as different aspects of mental activity were studied, sensory and mental skills began to be studied. This classification was fixed, because not only distinctive, but also general properties skills of all classes. Most often, skills are formed by imitation or development of conditioned reflexes, but also by trial and error, and with an increase in the number of trials, errors become less and less. So, the development of a skill is a process, as it were, coming from two opposite sides: from the side of the subject and from the side of the organism. Individual elements are arbitrarily and consciously singled out from complex movements and their implementation is practiced. At the same time, without the participation of will and consciousness, there is a process of automation of action. The organism in the course of automation takes over a significant part of the work organized by consciousness. The following empirical factors influence the formation of a skill: 1) motivation, learning ability, progress in assimilation, exercise, reinforcement, formation as a whole or in parts; 2) to understand the content of the operation - the level of development of the subject, the availability of knowledge, skills, the method of explaining the content of the operation (direct communication, indirect guidance, etc.), feedback; 3) for mastering an operation - the completeness of understanding its content, the gradual transition from one level of mastery to another according to certain indicators (automation, internalization, speed, etc.).

Intelligence is the ability of a person to act purposefully, think rationally and achieve certain results. This ability is necessary when various difficulties and problems arise in a person's life. It could be mathematical problem the ability to make quick decisions and act in a dangerous situation. Types of intelligence. The development of the intellect predetermines both heredity and the development of mental functions. The concept of intelligence includes such types of mental activity as memory, perception, thinking, speech, attention, which are the prerequisites for cognitive activity, the ability to make the most of previously acquired experience, perform analysis and synthesis, improve skills and multiply knowledge. The better the memory and thinking, the higher the intelligence. Both creativity and creativity are important for the level of intelligence. social intelligence and the ability to solve psychological problems. Psychologists use the concept of fluid and crystallized intelligence to determine age-related changes in intelligence. Crystallized, or concrete, intelligence is speech skills, knowledge and the ability to apply one's knowledge in practice or in scientific activities. Fluid, or abstract, intelligence is the ability to think abstractly, draw conclusions and the ability to use them. With age, the fluid intelligence of a person decreases, while the crystallized one, on the contrary, increases. The development of intelligence. In the first ten years of a person's life, intelligence gradually increases. This is easy to verify by performing an age-appropriate test. The intellect of a person of 18-20 years old reaches its peak, although, of course, a person improves his intellect throughout his life, studies, gains experience, etc. The level of intelligence can be predicted relatively early. During the first 18 months of a child's life, nothing can be said about his future intellect, but already at this time it is necessary to develop the mental abilities of the child.

The psyche and behavior of animals is studied by zoopsychology. Science originates in the 19th century in the works of C. Darwin, K.F. Ruler, V.A. Wagner. The psyche of animals is studied in dialectical unity with their behavior and the structure of the nervous system. Scientists believe that the main factor in the development of the psyche of animals is the complication of living conditions, which leads to more dynamic and diverse movements. The structure of the body, reflective functions, regulatory mechanisms of movements become more complicated

The form of the psyche of animals in the anatomical and physiological sense is the nervous tissue or its analogue in the simplest forms of animal life. As animals developed, a nervous system was formed: reticular, ganglionic and, finally, central.

In zoopsychology, there are such parameters as the form of mental reflection, the leading behavioral type, and the structure of the nervous system. According to them, three main stages in the development of the psyche of animals are distinguished.

Stage of elementary sensory psyche

The stage of the elementary sensory psyche is manifested in sensitivity to individual properties of the environment, has the form of elementary sensations. Animal behavior is based on one property. Evolutionary changes took place within the stage. Zoopsychologist K.E. Fabry defines the levels of evolution: lower and higher.

Definition 1

To the lowest level include organisms that are on the border of the plant and animal world: flagellates, sponges, protozoa, coelenterates, lower worms.

Definition 2

To the highest level belong to multicellular invertebrates and some species of vertebrates.

They have a complex structure of the nervous system, the motor apparatus has a complex differentiation. Accordingly, behavioral manifestations are complex and diverse.

Example 1

Consider the behavior of a spider that catches an insect in its web. The behavior of the spider is complex, driven by the vibration of the insect's wings, which is transmitted through the web. After the termination of the vibration, the movements of the spider towards the insect are not observed. But if there are vibrational moments, for example, they are created by a tuning fork. The spider goes to the tuning fork and strikes it with its jaws.

Of all the diversity of the world, animals are able to perceive an absolutely small part of it. This narrow spectrum, consisting of several properties of the environment, is sufficient to survive in natural conditions.
In the course of evolution at this stage, animals acquired a rather complex behavioral form - instinct.

Definition 3

Instinct- a behavioral type, which is realized by special forms of actions of a hereditary, programmed, stereotypical nature, with the help of which an animal, without undergoing special training, can adapt to the environmental conditions.

Examples can be given from the activities of bees, ants, whose behavior looks complex, sometimes inexplicable.

Example 2

Ants, feeling the approach of bad weather, close all the entrances to the anthill. Being at a great distance from the anthill, they easily find their way to it. Ants can be observed raiding their relatives with the abduction of pupae from them. Ants form living chains, along which their brethren climb up and thus extract building material.

In the previous example, the behavior of a spider attacking a tuning fork is completely inappropriate and useless for him. Just like the behavior of seagulls, which hatch any object that resembles an egg. Instincts are tied to conditions that match the pattern of innate behavior. When conditions change, the expediency property is lost. The psyche of an animal is capable of reflecting only individual properties of the environment. The question of changing the hereditary forms of animal behavior at the stage of elementary sensory psyche worried scientists. Zoopsychologist R.Yerks tried to teach earthworms to find a way in a maze leading to a nest. If the worm crawled in the other direction, it received an electric shock. After 180 experiments, the result was positive. Other experiments were carried out, they gave the same result. The scientist concluded that the ability to change behavior and learn at the stage of elementary sensory psyche is low and reflects only some fragments of animal life.

Stage of perceptual psyche

Definition 4

Stage of perceptual psyche- this is the ability to reflect external reality in the form of a set of qualities, things.

At this stage, it is also possible to distinguish the highest and lowest levels. All mammals belong to the highest level. They have a complex type of plastic behavior, where there is an analysis and synthesis of environmental conditions. Phenomena such as analysis and synthesis can manifest themselves only on the basis of a developed form of mental reflection. The structure of the central nervous system has become more complicated, especially in the development of the cerebral cortex. There have been changes in the development of the sense organs, organs of movement.

Animals can build their behavior not only in relation to the goal, but also to the conditions in which it is given. From here, a mode of action arises and is fixed in behavior. Skills appear - methods of action that have been developed and entrenched in the behavior of the animal. When environmental conditions change, animals find and reinforce a new way of acting in their behavior.

Conclusion 1

In this way, animals adapt to the environment in which they live. Innate programs of behavior change, giving way to the learning process.

Through learning animals acquire and accumulate individual experience. They reinforce in their behavior shortcut to food, finding a way out, bypassing obstacles, using signals for defense. Experiments were carried out on learning animals, they were associated with the formation of conditioned reflexes.

Academician I.P. Pavlov was engaged in the development of conditioned reflexes in dogs, which fixed the meaning of the signal for various stimuli (classical conditioned reflex). The stimuli were a flash of light and a call; they were used when food was received and acquired the value of a signal.

Psychologist BF Skinner studied instrumental reflexes. An animal was kept in a special cage with latches and levers. With the help of these devices, it was possible to open a window in the cage and get food. The rats found the right lever, forming and consolidating individual experience. Learning develops elementary forms of memory in animals. This has been confirmed experimentally.

Remark 1

When observing animals in their natural environment and under experimental conditions, it can be concluded that animals are able to analyze the situation, retain images of external reality and retain useful reactions.

The formation of skills occurs through imitation, the development of conditioned reflexes, through trial and error when environmental conditions change. At the stage of the perceptual psyche, animals also retain their instincts, but they also change, adapting to the specific conditions of life.

stage of intellect

At the stage of intellect there is a small number of representatives of the animal world - highly organized species of mammalian apes. The psyche of an animal reflects holistic situations and relationships between objects. There are behavioral manifestations of a complex form - the solution of the problem.

Example 3

A piece of meat tied with a rope lies behind the cage. The end of the rope is in the cage where the animal sits. If a dog is placed in a cage, it will not pull the rope, although it physically can. If there is a monkey in the cage, he will do it. The German psychologist W.Kohler investigated and described the intellectual behavior of animals. Monkeys in his experiments used tools and got food. Sticks and boxes were used as tools. The monkeys showed "manual" or hands-on thinking. Sometimes the animal was able to find a solution instantly.

Definition 5

Such a phenomenon called insight- a sudden understanding of the situation, while not involving past experience.

Researcher N.N. Ladygina-Kots observed the complex actions of monkeys. Chimpanzees made one tool from two sticks by inserting sticks into puzzles. Then they used a stick in their activities, pushing food out of a narrow pipe. This behavior has two phases: preparation and implementation. The preparation phase is driven by the objective relationship between the objects: the stick and the food.

K. E. Fabry dwells on one more feature of the behavior of monkeys. He considers manipulative actions - complex actions using objects.

It is possible to note a series of studies by Z.A. Zorin, A.A. Smirnov, where they managed to establish complex behavioral forms of monkeys: mastering the simplest analogues of human speech. Animals performed actions according to the oral instructions of the researcher. But did they understand him? It remains a question. More detailed studies showed that the monkeys were more oriented towards gestures and intonation. But it is possible that some individuals could understand spoken language.

The emergence of the stage of intelligence is associated with changes in the structure of the brain, the structure has become more complex. Significant changes originated in the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex. Among the stages of development of the psyche of animals, the stage of intellect is the upper limit. This is followed by a complex and lengthy stage of the historical and evolutionary development of man.

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A.N. Leontiev identified three stages in the development of the psyche: - the stage of the elementary sensory psyche; - stage of perceptual psyche; - stage of intellect.

Stage of elementary sensory psyche

The activity of animals at the earliest stage of development of the psyche is characterized by the fact that it corresponds to a separate influencing property (or a combination of individual properties). This is due to the connection of this property with those influences on which the basic biological functions of animals depend. Accordingly, they are able to reflect individual properties of objects in the external environment.

It is clear that the material basis for the development of the activity and sensitivity of animals is the development of their anatomical structure. The general path of change in organisms at the stage of development of the elementary sensory psyche consists, on the one hand, in the fact that the organs of sensitivity of animals become more and more differentiated and their number increases; sensations are differentiated accordingly. On the other hand, organs of movement, organs of external activity of animals, develop. Their development is most markedly due to two major changes: the transition to life in a terrestrial environment; in hydrobionts (animals living in the aquatic environment) - the transition to the active pursuit of prey.

Along with the development of the organs of sensitivity and organs of movement, the nervous system also develops - "the organ of communication and coordination of processes." Initially, the nervous system is a simple network. Its fibers connect sensitive cells laid on the surface directly with the contractile tissue of the animal. This type of nervous system is not represented in modern species. In such a network-like nervous system, excitation is transmitted diffusely, and there are no inhibitory processes. The next stage in the development of the nervous system is the allocation of neurons that form nerve nodes.

Along one line of evolution (in echinoderms), nerve nodes form a peripharyngeal ring with nerve trunks extending from it - this is already such a nerve center that allows complex coordinated movements to be carried out, for example, the opening of bivalve shells by starfish.

Along two other lines of evolution (from primary worms to crustaceans and spiders, from primary worms to insects), a more massive head ganglion is formed, which controls the work of the underlying nerve ganglions. The emergence of this type of nervous system is due to the release of the leading organ, which becomes the main organ that determines the work of the body as a whole. The evolution of the nodal nervous system goes in the direction of its differentiation. This is due to the segmentation of the animal's body.

Although at this stage activity becomes more complicated all the time (simultaneously with the development of the organs of perception, action, and the nervous system), the structure of activity does not change dramatically. The perception of reality never becomes the perception of integral things.

Stage of perceptual psyche

The complication of activity within the limits of the first type goes in two directions: on the one hand, the complication of the very mechanism for performing activity - there are chains consisting of a large number reactions. This line of complication of activity is not progressive, because it does not bring any qualitative changes. On the other hand, the progressive direction of the complication of activity leads to a change in the very structure of activity, to its qualitative change.

This progressive change leads to the emergence of a new form of reflection of the external environment, which characterizes the perceptual (perceiving) stage of the development of the psyche. Reflection occurs not in the form of individual sensations, but in the form of integral images of things. However, the mental reflection of the situation is "late": only integral objects are reflected, and not the relationship between them. The behavior of animals at this stage is controlled by the totality of the number of simultaneous actions.

The emergence and development of the perceptual psyche in animals is due to anatomical and physiological changes: the development and change in the role of distant sense organs, primarily vision; development of organs of external movement. The leading organs formed at the previous stage become organs that integrate external influences. This becomes possible due to the simultaneous restructuring of the central nervous system with the formation of the forebrain and cerebral cortex. The full development of operations in animals occurs in connection with the development of the cortex.

The separation of operations, which characterizes the stage of the perceptual psyche, gives rise to the development of a form of consolidation of animal experience in the form of motor skills. Operations are relatively independent actions, the content of which does not refer to the object itself, to which the action is directed, but to the conditions in which the object is located. The development of operations and generalized perception of the surrounding external reality is accompanied by the complication of the cerebral cortex.

During the transition to the stage of the perceptual psyche, the sensory form of the consolidation of experience changes qualitatively. "In animals, for the first time, sensory representations arise."

Together with a change in the structure of animal activity and a change in the form of their reflection of reality, a restructuring of memory functions occurs. The mnemonic function in the motor sphere appears in the form of motor skills, and in the sensory sphere in the form of a primitive figurative memory.

Stage of intelligence (manual thinking)

The stage of intellect is characterized by complex activity and complex forms of reflection of reality. At this stage of the development of the psyche, activity as a process is divided into a phase of preparation and a phase of implementation. Intelligence arises where the preparation phase takes place.

An analysis of the intellectual activity of animals has shown that animals reflect both individual things and their relationships. The animal is able to generalize the connections of things. The basis for the emergence and development of animal intelligence is the development of the cerebral cortex, mainly the frontal cortex, and its functions.

This stage of the development of the psyche is preparatory to the formation of human thinking.

K.E. Fabry, relying on later zoopsychological studies, distinguishes two more levels in the first two stages of the development of the psyche, and does not single out the stage of development of the intellect as a separate one, but refers it to the stage of the perceptual psyche.