Feelings - the simplest mental process consisting of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena during their direct impact on the corresponding receptors

Receptors - These are sensitive nerve formations that perceive the influence of the external or internal environment and encode it in the form of a set of electrical signals. These signals then go to the brain, which decodes them. This process is accompanied by the emergence of the simplest mental phenomena - sensations.

Some human receptors are combined into more complex formations - sense organs. A person has an organ of vision - the eye, an organ of hearing - the ear, an organ of balance - the vestibular apparatus, an organ of smell - the nose, an organ of taste - the tongue. At the same time, some receptors are not united into one organ, but are scattered over the surface of the entire body. These are receptors for temperature, pain and tactile sensitivity. A large number of receptors are located inside the body: pressure receptors, chemical senses, etc. For example, receptors sensitive to the content of glucose in the blood provide a feeling of hunger. Receptors and sensory organs are the only channels through which the brain can receive information for subsequent processing.

All receptors can be divided into distant , which can perceive irritation at a distance (visual, auditory, olfactory) and contact (taste, tactile, pain).

Analyzer - the material basis of sensations

Sensations are the product of activity analyzers person. An analyzer is an interconnected complex of nerve formations that receives signals, transforms them, configures the receptor apparatus, transmits information to nerve centers, processes it and deciphers it. I.P. Pavlov believed that the analyzer consists of three elements: sense organ ,conductive path And cortical section . According to modern concepts, the analyzer includes at least five sections: receptor, conductor, tuning unit, filtering unit and analysis unit. Since the conductor section is essentially just an electrical cable that conducts electrical impulses, the most important role is played by the four sections of the analyzer. The feedback system allows you to make adjustments to the operation of the receptor section when external conditions change (for example, fine-tuning the analyzer with different impact forces).

Thresholds of sensations

In psychology, there are several concepts of sensitivity threshold

Lower absolute sensitivity threshold defined as the lowest strength of stimulus that can cause sensation.

Human receptors are distinguished by very high sensitivity to an adequate stimulus. For example, the lower visual threshold is only 2-4 quanta of light, and the olfactory threshold is equal to 6 molecules of an odorous substance.

Stimuli with a strength less than the threshold do not cause sensations. They are called subliminal and are not realized, but can penetrate the subconscious, determining human behavior, as well as forming the basis for it dreams, intuition, unconscious desires. Research by psychologists shows that the human subconscious can react to very weak or very short stimuli that are not perceived by consciousness.

Upper absolute sensitivity threshold changes the very nature of sensations (most often to pain). For example, with a gradual increase in water temperature, a person begins to perceive not heat, but pain. The same thing happens with strong sound and or pressure on the skin.

Relative threshold (discrimination threshold) is the minimum change in the intensity of the stimulus that causes changes in sensations. According to the Bouguer-Weber law, the relative threshold of sensation is constant when measured as a percentage of the initial value of stimulation.

Bouguer-Weber law: “The discrimination threshold for each analyzer has

constant relative value":

DI/I = const, where I is the strength of the stimulus

Classification of sensations

1. Exteroceptive sensations reflect the properties of objects and phenomena of the external environment (“five senses”). These include visual, auditory, taste, temperature and tactile sensations. In fact, there are more than five receptors that provide these sensations, and the so-called “sixth sense” has nothing to do with it. For example, visual sensations arise when excited chopsticks(“twilight, black and white vision”) and cones(“daytime, color vision”). Temperature sensations in humans occur during separate excitation cold and heat receptors. Tactile sensations reflect the impact on the surface of the body, and they arise when excited or sensitive touch receptors in the upper layer of the skin, or with stronger exposure to pressure receptors in the deep layers of the skin.

2. Interoreceptive sensations reflect the state of internal organs. These include sensations of pain, hunger, thirst, nausea, suffocation, etc. Painful sensations signal damage and irritation of human organs and are a unique manifestation of the body’s protective functions. The intensity of pain varies, reaching great strength in some cases, which can even lead to a state of shock.

3. Proprioceptive sensations (muscular-motor). These are sensations that reflect the position and movements of our body. With the help of muscular-motor sensations, a person receives information about the position of the body in space, the relative position of all its parts, the movement of the body and its parts, the contraction, stretching and relaxation of muscles, the condition of joints and ligaments, etc. Muscular-motor sensations are complex. Simultaneous stimulation of receptors of different quality gives sensations of a unique quality: stimulation of receptor endings in the muscles creates a feeling of muscle tone when performing a movement; sensations of muscle tension and effort are associated with irritation of the nerve endings of the tendons; irritation of the receptors of the articular surfaces gives a sense of direction, shape and speed of movements. Many authors include in this same group of sensations the sensations of balance and acceleration that arise as a result of stimulation of the receptors of the vestibular analyzer.

Properties of sensations

Sensations have certain properties:

· adaptation,

· contrast,

thresholds of sensations

· sensitization,

· sequential images.

Imagination is a process of creative transformation of ideas that reflect reality, and the creation on this basis of new ideas that were not previously available. In addition to this, there are other definitions of imagination. For example, it can be defined as the ability to imagine an absent (at the moment or generally in reality) object, hold it in consciousness and mentally manipulate it. Sometimes the term “fantasy” is used as a synonym, which denotes both the process of creating something new and the final product of this process. Therefore, in psychology the term “imagination” has been adopted, denoting only the procedural side of this phenomenon. Imagination differs from perception in two ways: - the source of emerging images is not the external world, but memory; - it corresponds less to reality, since it always contains an element of fantasy. Functions of imagination: 1 Representation of reality in images, which makes it possible to use them when performing operations with imaginary objects. 2 Formation of an internal action plan (creating an image of a goal and finding ways to achieve it) in conditions of uncertainty. 3 Participation in the voluntary regulation of cognitive processes (memory management). 4 Regulation of emotional states (in auto-training, visualization, neuro-linguistic programming, etc.). 5 The basis for creativity - both artistic (literature, painting, sculpture) and technical (invention) 6 Creation of images that correspond to the description of an object (when a person tries to imagine something he has heard or read about). 7 Producing images that do not program, but replace activity (pleasant dreams replacing boring reality). Types of imagination: Depending on the principle underlying the classification, different types of imagination can be distinguished (Fig. 10.1):
Classification of imagination Characteristics of certain types of imagination Active imagination (intentional) - the creation by a person of his own free will of new images or ideas, accompanied by certain efforts (a poet is looking for a new artistic image to describe nature, an inventor sets a goal to create a new technical device, etc.). Passive imagination (unintentional) - in this case, a person does not set himself the goal of transforming reality, and images spontaneously arise on their own (this type of mental phenomena includes a wide range of phenomena, ranging from dreams to an idea that suddenly and unplannedly arose in the mind of the inventor). Productive (creative) imagination is the creation of fundamentally new ideas that do not have a direct model, when reality is creatively transformed in a new way, and not simply mechanically copied or recreated. Reproductive (recreating) imagination is the creation of an image of objects or phenomena according to their description, when reality is reproduced from memory as it is. Characteristics of certain types of imagination: Dreams can be classified as passive and involuntary forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, they can be either reproductive or productive. Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov called dreams “an unprecedented combination of experienced impressions,” and modern science believes that they reflect the process of transferring information from operative to long-term memory. Another point of view is that in a person’s dreams many vital needs are expressed and satisfied, which, for a number of reasons, cannot be realized in real life.

Hallucination- passive and involuntary forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, they are most often productive. Hallucinations are fantastic visions that have no obvious connection with the reality around a person. Hallucinations are usually the result of some kind of mental disorder or the effect of drugs or drugs on the brain.

Dreams in contrast to hallucinations, they are a completely normal mental state, which is a fantasy associated with a desire, most often a somewhat idealized future. This is a passive and productive type of imagination.

Dream It differs from a dream in that it is more realistic and more feasible. Dreams are a type of active forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, dreams are most often productive. Features of a dream: - When dreaming, a person always creates an image of what he wants. - It is not directly included in human activity and does not immediately produce practical results. - A dream is aimed at the future, while some other forms of imagination work with the past. - The images that a person creates in his dreams are distinguished by emotional richness, bright character, and at the same time - a lack of understanding of specific ways to realize the dream. Dreams and daydreams occupy a fairly large part of a person's time, especially in youth. For most people, dreams are pleasant thoughts about the future. Some also experience disturbing visions that give rise to feelings of anxiety, guilt, and aggressiveness. Mechanisms for processing ideas into imaginary images. The creation of imaginary images is carried out using several methods: Agglutination- “folding”, “gluing” various parts that are not connected in everyday life. An example is the classic character of fairy tales - the centaur, the Serpent-Gorynych, etc.

Hyperbolization- a significant increase or decrease in an object or its individual parts, which leads to qualitatively new properties. An example is the following fairy-tale and literary characters: the giant Homeric Cyclops, Gulliver, Little Thumb. Accenting- highlighting a characteristic detail in the created image (friendly cartoon, caricature).

2.Perception – a holistic reflection of objects and phenomena in the totality of their properties and parts with their direct impact on the senses.

Perception is always a set of sensations, and sensation is an integral part of perception. However, perception is not a simple sum of sensations received from a particular object, but a qualitatively and quantitatively new stage of sensory cognition.

Scheme of formation of mental images during perception:

Physiological basis of perception is the coordinated activity of several analyzers, occurring with the participation of associative parts of the cerebral cortex and speech centers.

In the process of perception, they are formed perceptual images , with which attention, memory and thinking are subsequently operated. An image represents the subjective form of an object; it is a product of the inner world of a given person.

For example, the perception of an apple consists of the visual sensation of a green circle, the tactile sensation of a smooth, hard and cool surface, and the olfactory sensation of the characteristic apple smell. Added together, these three sensations will give us the opportunity to perceive a whole object - an apple.

Perception must be distinguished from submissions, that is, the mental creation of images of objects and phenomena that once influenced the body, but are absent at the moment.

In the process of forming an image, it is influenced attitudes, interests, needs, And motives personality. Thus, the image that appears at the sight of the same dog will be different for a random passer-by, an amateur dog breeder and a person who has recently been bitten by a dog. Their perceptions will differ in completeness and emotionality. A huge role in perception is played by a person’s desire to perceive this or that object, the activity of its perception.

Properties of perception

Human perceptions differ from sensations in a number of specific properties. The main properties of perception are:

· constancy,

· integrity.

· selectivity,

· objectivity,

· apperception,

· meaningfulness,

Types of perception

There are three main classifications of perception processes - according to the form of existence of matter, according to the leading modality and according to the degree of volitional control.

According to the first classification , there are three types of perception

Perception of space- this is the perception of the distance to objects or between them, their relative position, their volume, distance and direction in which they are located.

Motion perception- this is a reflection in time of changes in the position of objects or the observer himself in space.

Perception of time is the least studied area of psychology. So far it is only known that the assessment of the duration of a time period depends on what events (from the point of view of a particular person) it was filled with. If time was filled with many interesting events, then time passes quickly, and if there were few significant events, then time passes slowly. When remembering, the opposite phenomenon occurs - a period of time filled with interesting things seems to us longer than an “empty” one. The material basis for human perception of time is the so-called “cellular clock” - the fixed duration of some biological processes at the levels of individual cells, by which the body checks the duration of large periods of time.

Second classification of perception (according to the leading modality) includes visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile perception, as well as the perception of one’s body in space.

In accordance with this classification in neuro-linguistic programming (one of the areas of modern psychology), all people are usually divided into visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. For visual learners, the visual type of perception predominates, for auditory learners – auditory, and for kinesthetic learners – tactile, gustatory and temperature.

3. Memory - the ability (of a living system to record the fact of interaction with the environment, save the result of this interaction in the form of experience and use it in behavior.

memory is a complex mental process consisting of several private processes connected with each other. Memory is necessary for a person. It allows him to accumulate, save and subsequently use personal life experience. Human memory is not just some single function. There are many different processes involved. There are three completely different types of memory: 1) as a “direct imprint” of sensory information; 2) short-term memory; 3) long-term memory.

Direct imprint of sensory information . This system maintains a fairly accurate and complete picture of the world perceived by the senses. The duration of saving the picture is very short - 0.1-0.5 s. Close your eyes, then open them for a moment and close them again. Watch how the clear, clear picture you see persists for a while and then slowly disappears.

Short-term memory holds a different type of material. In this case, the retained information is not a complete representation of events that occurred at the sensory level, but a direct interpretation of these events. For example, if someone says a phrase in front of you, you will remember not so much its constituent sounds as the words. Usually only 5-6 words are remembered. By making a conscious effort to repeat the material over and over again, you can retain it in your short-term memory for an indefinite period of time. Immediate imprints of sensory memory cannot be repeated; they are stored only for a few tenths of a second and there is no way to extend them.

Long-term memory . There is a clear and compelling difference between the memory of an event that just happened and events of the distant past. Long-term memory is the most important and most complex of memory systems. The capacity of the first named memory systems is very limited: the first consists of a few tenths of seconds, the second - several storage units. The capacity of long-term memory is practically limitless. Anything held for more than a few minutes must be in the long-term memory system. The main source of difficulties associated with long-term memory is the problem of retrieval of information.

IN memory There are three processes: memorization(entering information into memory), conservation(hold) and playback These processes are interconnected. Organization of memory influences retention. The quality of the save determines the playback.

The process of memorization can proceed as an instantaneous imprinting - imprinting. The state of imprinting in a person occurs at a moment of high emotional stress. Its connection with periods of sensitive development of mental functions is likely. When the same stimulus is repeated many times, it is imprinted without a conscious attitude towards it. The intention to retain material in memory characterizes voluntary memorization.

Organized repetition of material for the purpose of memorizing it is called memorization. A significant increase in learning ability falls between the ages of 8 and 10 years and especially increases from 11 to 13 years. From the age of 13, there is a relative decline in the rate of memory development. New growth begins at age 16. At the age of 20-25 years, the memory of a person engaged in mental work reaches its highest level.

According to the mechanism they are distinguished logical And mechanical memorization. According to the result - verbatim And semantic.

The focus on memorization alone does not give the desired effect. Its absence can be compensated for by high forms of intellectual activity, even if this activity itself was not aimed at memorization. And only the combination of these two components creates a solid foundation for maximally successful memorization and makes memorization productive.

What is best remembered is what arises as an obstacle or difficulty in activity. Memorizing material given in ready-made form is carried out with less success than memorizing material found independently during active activity. What is remembered, even involuntarily, but in the process of active intellectual activity, is retained in memory more firmly than what was remembered voluntarily.

The result of memorization is higher when relying on visual, figurative material. However, memorization productivity when relying on words increases with age than when relying on pictures. Therefore, the difference in the use of these and other supports decreases with age. When you come up with your own, verbal supports become a more effective means of memorization than ready-made pictures.

In a broad sense, the support of memorization can be everything with which we associate what we remember or what itself “pops up” in us as associated with it. The semantic support is a certain point, i.e. something short, compressed, serving as a support for some broader content that replaces it. The most developed form of semantic support points are theses, as a brief expression of the main idea of each section. More often, section titles serve as a reference point.

The material is remembered better and forgotten less in cases where key points were highlighted during the memorization process. The strength of a strong point depends on how deeply and thoroughly we understand the content of the section thanks to it. The semantic reference point is the reference point of understanding. For us, the most important thing is not the supporting points, but the semantic activity that is necessary for highlighting.

4. Thinking - this is the highest form of human cognitive activity, a socially conditioned mental process of indirect and generalized reflection of reality, the process of searching and discovering something essentially new.

The main features of the thinking process are:

Generalized and indirect reflection of reality.

Connection with practical activities.

Inextricable connection with speech.

The presence of a problematic situation and the absence of a ready answer.

Generalized reflection in reality means that in the process of thinking we turn to that common thing that unites a similar number of objects and phenomena. For example, when we talk about furniture, we mean by this word tables, chairs, sofas, armchairs, cabinets, etc.

Indirect reflection reality can be seen in the arithmetic problem of adding several apples or in determining the speed of two trains moving towards each other. “Apples”, “trains” are just symbols, conventional images, behind which there should not be specific fruits or compounds.

Thinking arises from practical activities, from sensory knowledge, but goes far beyond its limits. In turn, the correctness of thinking is tested during practice.

Thinking is inextricably linked with speech. Thinking operates with concepts, which in their form are words, but, in essence, are the result of mental operations. In turn, as a result of thinking, verbal concepts can be clarified.

Thinking takes place only when there is problematic situation. If you can get by with the old ways of acting, then thinking is not required.

1.2 Qualitative characteristics of thinking

Thinking, like other human cognitive processes, has a number of specific qualities. These qualities are present to varying degrees in different people, and are important to varying degrees in solving different problem situations. Some of these qualities are more significant when solving theoretical problems, while others are more significant when solving practical issues.

Examples of qualities (properties) of thinking:

Quick thinking - the ability to find the right solutions under time pressure

Flexibility of thinking - the ability to change the intended plan of action when the situation changes or the criteria for the right decision change

Depth of thinking - the degree of penetration into the essence of the phenomenon being studied, the ability to identify significant logical connections between the components of the problem

1.3 Thinking and intelligence

Intelligence- the totality of a person’s mental abilities that ensure the success of his cognitive activity.

In a broad sense, this term is understood as the totality of all cognitive functions of an individual (perception, memory, imagination, thinking), and in a narrow sense - his mental abilities.

In psychology there is a concept structures of intelligence However, the understanding of this structure varies widely depending on the views of a particular psychologist. For example, the famous scientist R. Cattell identified two sides in the structure of intelligence: dynamic, or fluid ( "fluid"), and static or crystallized ( “crystallized”). According to his concept, fluid intelligence manifests itself in tasks whose solution requires quick and flexible adaptation to a new situation. It depends more on the person's genotype. Crystallized intelligence is more dependent on the social environment, and manifests itself when solving problems that require relevant skills and experience.

You can use other models of the structure of intelligence, for example, highlighting the following components in it:

·Ability to learn (quickly acquire new knowledge, skills and abilities);

·Ability to successfully operate with abstract symbols and concepts;

·Ability to solve practical problems and problem situations.

·The amount of available long-term and RAM memory.

Accordingly, intelligence tests include several groups of tasks. These are tests that reveal the amount of knowledge in a certain area, tests that evaluate a person’s intellectual development in connection with his biological age, tests that determine a person’s ability to solve problem situations and intellectual tasks. In addition, there are special intelligence tests, for example, abstract-logical or spatial thinking, verbal intelligence, etc. The most famous intelligence tests include:

Stanford-Binet test: assesses the child's intellectual development.

Wechsler test: assesses the verbal and nonverbal components of intelligence.

Raven's test: nonverbal intelligence.

Eysenck test (IQ)– determines the general level of intelligence development

When studying intelligence in psychology, there are two approaches: intellectual abilities are innate or intellectual abilities develop in the process of individual development, as well as their intermediate version.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SENSATIONS.

Feeling- this is the simplest mental process, consisting of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena of the material world, as well as the internal states of the body under the direct influence of material stimuli on the corresponding receptors.

Reflection- a universal property of matter, which consists in the ability of objects to reproduce with varying degrees of adequacy the signs, structural characteristics and relationships of other objects.

Receptor- a specialized organic device located on the surface of the body or inside it and designed to perceive stimuli of various nature: physical, chemical, mechanical, etc., and convert them into nerve electrical impulses.

Sensation constitutes that initial area of the sphere of mental cognitive processes, which is located at the border sharply separating mental and pre-psychic phenomena. Mental cognitive processes– dynamically changing mental phenomena, in their totality providing cognition as a process and as a result.

Psychologists have traditionally used the term “sensation” to designate an elementary perceptual image and the mechanism of its construction. In psychology, they talk about sensation when a person is aware that some kind of signal has been received by his senses. Any change in the environment that is accessible to vision, hearing and other modalities is psychologically presented as a sensation. Sensation is the primary conscious representation of a formless and objectless fragment of reality of a certain modality: color, light, sound, indefinite touch. In the area of taste and smell, the difference between sensation and perception is much smaller, and sometimes it is virtually non-existent. If we cannot identify a product (sugar, honey) by taste, then we are talking only about sensations. If odors are not identified with their objective sources, then they are presented only in the form of sensations. Pain signals are almost always presented as sensations, since only a person with a very rich imagination can “construct” an image of pain.

The role of sensations in human life is extremely great, since they are the source of our knowledge about the world and about ourselves. We learn about the richness of the surrounding world, about sounds and colors, smells and temperatures, sizes and much more thanks to our senses. With the help of the senses, the human body receives a variety of information in the form of sensations about the state of the external and internal environment.

internal environment.

The sense organs receive, select, accumulate information and transmit it to the brain for processing. The result is an adequate reflection of the surrounding world and the state of the organism itself. On this basis, nerve impulses are formed that arrive to the executive organs responsible for regulating body temperature, the functioning of the digestive organs, organs of movement, endocrine glands, for adjusting the sense organs themselves, etc.

The senses are the only channels through which the external world “penetrates” the human consciousness. The senses give a person the ability to navigate the world around him. If a person were to lose all his senses, he would not know what was happening around him, would not be able to communicate with people around him, obtain food, or avoid danger.

PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES OF SENSATIONS. CONCEPT ABOUT THE ANALYZER

All living beings that have a nervous system have the ability to sense sensations. As for conscious sensations (about, the source and quality of which a report is given), only humans have them. In the evolution of living beings, sensations arose on the basis of the primary irritability, which is the property of living matter to respond to biologically significant environmental influences by changing its internal state and external behavior.

A person’s sensations, in their quality and diversity, reflect the variety of environmental properties that are significant to him. Human sense organs, or analyzers, from the moment of birth are adapted to perceive and process various types of energy in the form of stimuli-irritants (physical, mechanical, chemical and others).

The sensation arises as a reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus and, like any mental phenomenon, has a reflex character. Reaction- the body's response to a specific stimulus.

The physiological basis of sensation is a nervous process that occurs when a stimulus acts on an analyzer adequate to it. Analyzer– a concept (according to Pavlov) denoting a set of afferent and efferent nervous structures involved in the perception, processing and response to stimuli.

Efferent is a process directed from the inside out, from the central nervous system to the periphery of the body.

Afferent- a concept that characterizes the course of the process of nervous excitation through the nervous system in the direction from the periphery of the body to the brain.

The analyzer consists of three parts:

1. Peripheral section (or receptor), which is a special transformer of external energy into the nervous process. There are two types of receptors: contact receptors- receptors that transmit irritation upon direct contact with objects affecting them, and distant receptors - receptors that respond to stimuli emanating from a distant object.

Afferent (centripetal) and efferent (centrifugal) nerves, conducting pathways connecting the peripheral part of the analyzer with the central one.

3. Subcortical and cortical sections (brain end) of the analyzer, where the processing of nerve impulses coming from the peripheral sections occurs.

In the cortical section of each analyzer there is an analyzer core, i.e. the central part, where the bulk of the receptor cells is concentrated, and the periphery, consisting of scattered cellular elements, which are located in varying quantities in various areas of the cortex.

The nuclear part of the analyzer consists of a large mass of cells that are located in the area of the cerebral cortex where the centripetal nerves from the receptor enter.

Scattered (peripheral) elements

of this analyzer are included in areas adjacent to the cores of other analyzers. This ensures the participation of a large part of the entire cerebral cortex in a separate act of sensation. The analyzer core performs the function of fine analysis and synthesis. Scattered elements are associated with the coarse analysis function. Certain cells of the peripheral parts of the analyzer correspond to certain areas of cortical cells.

For sensation to arise, the entire analyzer must work as a single whole. The impact of an irritant on the receptor causes irritation. The beginning of this irritation is the transformation of external energy into a nervous process, which is produced by the receptor. From the receptor, this process along the centripetal nerve reaches the nuclear part of the analyzer, located in the spinal cord or brain. When excitation reaches the cortical cells of the analyzer, we feel the qualities of the stimuli, and after this the body’s response to the irritation occurs.

If the signal is caused by an irritant that threatens to cause damage to the body, or is addressed to the autonomic nervous system, then it is very likely that it will immediately cause a reflex emanating from the spinal cord or other lower center, and this will happen before we are aware of this impact (reflex - automatic response " the body's reaction to the action of any internal or external stimulus).

If the signal continues its path along the spinal cord, then it follows two different paths: one leads to the brain cortex through the thalamus, and the other, more diffuse, passes through reticular formation filter, which keeps the cortex awake and decides whether the signal transmitted directly is important enough for the cortex to “take care of it.” If the signal is deemed important, a complex process will begin that will lead to a sensation in the truest sense of the word. This process involves changing the activity of many thousands of cortical neurons, which will have to structure and organize the sensory signal to give

it makes sense to him. (Sensory - associated with the work of the senses).

First, the cortex's attention to the stimulus will now entail a series of movements of the eyes, head, or torso. This will allow you to become more deeply and in detail familiar with the information coming from the sensory organ - the primary source of this signal, and also, possibly, connect other senses. As new information becomes available, it will be associated with traces of similar events stored in memory.

Between the receptor and the brain there is not only a direct (centripetal) connection, but also a feedback (centrifugal) connection .

Thus, sensation is not only the result of a centripetal process, it is based on a complete and complex reflex act, subject in its formation and course to the general laws of reflex activity. In this case, the analyzer constitutes the initial and most important part of the entire path of nervous processes, or reflex arc.

CLASSIFICATION OF SENSATIONS

The classification of sensations is based on the properties of the stimuli that cause them and the receptors that are affected by these stimuli. So, by the nature of reflection and location of sensation receptors divided into three groups:

1 Interoceptive sensations, having receptors located in the internal organs and tissues of the body and reflecting the state of the internal organs. Signals coming from the internal organs are in most cases not noticeable, with the exception of painful symptoms. Information from interoceptors informs the brain about the states of the internal environment of the body, such as the presence of biologically useful or harmful substances in it, body temperature, the chemical composition of fluids present in it, pressure and much more.

2. Proprioceptive sensations, whose receptors are located in ligaments and muscles, they provide information about the movement and position of our body. The subclass of proprioception, which is the sensitivity to movement, is called kinesthesia, and the corresponding receptors are called kinesthetic or kinesthetic.

3. Exteroceptive sensations, reflecting the properties of objects and phenomena of the external environment and having receptors on the surface of the body. Exteroceptors can be divided into two groups: contact and remote. Contact receptors transmit irritation upon direct contact with objects affecting them; These are the tactile and taste buds. Distant receptors respond to stimulation emanating from a distant object; they are visual, auditory, and olfactory receptors.

From the point of view of the data of modern science, the accepted division of sensations into external (exteroceptors) and internal (interoceptors) is not enough. Some types of sensations can be considered external-internal. These include, for example, temperature, pain, taste, vibration, muscle-articular and static-dynamic.

According to sense organs, sensations are divided into gustatory, visual, olfactory, tactile, and auditory.

Touch(or skin sensitivity) is the most widely represented type of sensitivity. The sense of touch, along with tactile sensations (touch sensations: pressure, pain), includes an independent type of sensation - temperature sensations (heat and cold). They are a function of a special temperature analyzer. Temperature sensations are not only part of the sense of touch, but also have an independent, more general significance for the entire process of thermoregulation and heat exchange between the body and the environment.

Unlike other exteroceptors, which are localized in narrowly limited areas of the surface of the predominantly head end of the body, the receptors of the skin-mechanical analyzer, like other skin receptors, are located over the entire surface of the body, in areas bordering the external environment. However, the specialization of skin receptors has not yet been accurately established. It is unclear whether there are receptors exclusively designed to perceive one stimulus, generating differentiated sensations of pressure, pain, cold or heat, or whether the quality of the resulting sensation may vary depending on the specific property affecting it.

The function of tactile receptors, like all others, is to receive the process of irritation and transform its energy into the corresponding nervous process. Irritation of nerve receptors is the process of mechanical contact of the stimulus with the area of the skin surface in which this receptor is located. With significant intensity of the stimulus, contact turns into pressure. With the relative movement of the stimulus and a section of the skin surface, contact and pressure are carried out under changing conditions of mechanical friction. Here irritation is carried out not by stationary, but by fluid, changing contact.

Research shows that touch or pressure sensations only occur when a mechanical stimulus causes deformation of the skin surface. When pressure is applied to a very small area of skin, the greatest deformation occurs precisely at the site of direct application of the irritant. If the pressure is applied to a sufficiently large surface, then it is distributed unevenly - its lowest intensity is felt in the depressed parts of the surface, and the highest is felt along the edges of the depressed area. In the experiment of G. Meissner, it was shown that when a hand is immersed in water or mercury, the temperature of which is approximately equal to the temperature of the hand, pressure is felt only at the boundary of the part of the surface immersed in the liquid, i.e. precisely where the curvature of this surface and its deformation are most significant.

The intensity of the sensation of pressure depends on the speed with which the deformation of the skin surface occurs: the stronger the sensation, the faster the deformation occurs.

Smell- a type of sensitivity that generates specific sensations of smell. This is one of the most ancient and vital sensations. Anatomically, the organ of smell is located in most living creatures in the most advantageous place - in front, in a prominent part of the body. The path from the olfactory receptors to those brain structures where the impulses received from them are received and processed is the shortest. Nerve fibers extending from the olfactory receptors directly enter the brain without intermediate switches.

The part of the brain called the olfactory region is also the most ancient; The lower the level of the evolutionary ladder a living creature is, the more space it occupies in the mass of the brain. In many ways, the sense of smell is the most mysterious. Many have noticed that although smell helps to recall an event, it is almost impossible to remember the smell itself, just as we mentally recall an image or sound. The reason why smell serves memory so well is because the mechanism of smell is closely connected to the part of the brain that controls memory and emotions, although we do not know exactly how this connection works and works.

Taste sensations have four main modalities: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. All other sensations of taste are various combinations of these four basic ones. Modality is a qualitative characteristic of sensations that arise under the influence of certain stimuli and reflect the properties of objective reality in a specifically encoded form.

Smell and taste are called chemical senses because their receptors respond to molecular signals. When molecules dissolved in a liquid, such as saliva, excite the taste buds on the tongue, we experience taste. When molecules in the air strike the olfactory receptors in the nose, we smell. Although in humans and most animals taste and smell, having developed from a common chemical sense, have become independent, they remain interconnected. In some cases, for example, when we smell chloroform, we think we smell it, but in fact it is a taste.

On the other hand, what we call the taste of a substance is often its smell. If you close your eyes and pinch your nose, you may not be able to distinguish a potato from an apple or wine from coffee. By holding your nose, you will lose 80 percent of your ability to smell the aromas of most foods. This is why people whose noses cannot breathe (runny nose) have difficulty tasting food.

Although our olfactory system is amazingly sensitive, humans and other primates smell much less well than most other animal species. Some scientists suggest that our distant ancestors lost their sense of smell when they climbed trees. Since visual acuity was more important during this period, the balance between different types of senses was disrupted. During this process, the shape of the nose changed and the size of the olfactory organ decreased. It became less subtle and did not recover even when human ancestors descended from the trees.

However, in many animal species the sense of smell is still one of the main means of communication. It is likely that smells are also more important for humans than previously thought.

Substances have an odor only if they are volatile, that is, they easily pass from a solid or liquid state to a gaseous state. However, the strength of the smell is not determined by volatility alone: some less volatile substances, such as those found in pepper, smell stronger than more volatile substances, such as alcohol. Salt and sugar have almost no odor, since their molecules are so tightly linked to each other by electrostatic forces that they hardly evaporate.

Although we are very good at detecting odors, we are poor at recognizing them in the absence of a visual cue. This is the property of our perception mechanism.

Smell and smell are much more complex phenomena and influence our lives to a greater extent than we believed until recently, and it seems that scientists working on these problems are on the verge of many amazing discoveries.

Visual sensations- a type of sensation caused by exposure to electromagnetic waves on the visual system in the range from 380 to 780 billionths of a meter. This range occupies only part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Waves that are within this range and differ in length give rise to sensations of different colors. The visual apparatus is the eye. Light waves reflected by an object are refracted as they pass through the lens of the eye and are formed on the retina in the form of an image - an image. Visual sensations are divided into:

Achromatic, reflecting the transition from darkness to light (from black to white) through a mass of shades of gray;

Chromatic, reflecting a color spectrum with numerous shades and color transitions - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

The emotional impact of color is related to its physiological, psychological and social meaning.

Auditory sensations are the result of mechanical action on the receptors of sound waves with an oscillation frequency from 16 to 20,000 Hz. Hertz is a physical unit by which the frequency of air vibrations per second is measured, numerically equal to one vibration performed per second. Fluctuations in air pressure, following with a certain frequency and characterized by the periodic appearance of areas of high and low pressure, are perceived by us as sounds of a certain height and volume. The higher the frequency of air pressure fluctuations, the higher the sound we perceive.

There are 3 types of sound sensations:

Noises and other sounds (occurring in nature and in the artificial environment);

Speech (related to communication and mass media);

Musical (artificially created by man for artificial experiences).

In these types of sensations, the auditory analyzer identifies four sound qualities:

Strength (loudness, measured in decibels);

Height (high and low frequency of oscillations per unit time);

Timbre (original coloring of sound - speech and music);

Duration (sounding time plus tempo-rhythmic pattern).

BASIC PROPERTIES OF SENSATIONS.

Different types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to them. These properties include:

Spatial localization– display of the location of the stimulus in space. For example, contact sensations (tactile, pain, taste) are correlated with the part of the body that is affected by the stimulus. At the same time, the localization of pain sensations can be more diffuse and less accurate than tactile ones. Spatial threshold- the minimum size of a barely perceptible stimulus, as well as the minimum distance between stimuli when this distance is still felt.

Intensity of sensation- a quantitative characteristic that reflects the subjective magnitude of the sensation and is determined by the strength of the stimulus and the functional state of the analyzer.

Emotional tone of sensations- the quality of sensation, manifested in its ability to evoke certain positive or negative emotions.

Speed of sensation(or time threshold) - the minimum time required to reflect external influence.

Differentiation, subtlety of sensations- an indicator of discriminative sensitivity, the ability to distinguish between two or more stimuli.

Adequacy, accuracy of sensation- correspondence of the resulting sensation to the characteristics of the stimulus.

Quality (sensations of a given modality)- this is the main feature of a given sensation, distinguishing it from other types of sensation and varying within a given type of sensation (a given modality). Thus, auditory sensations differ in pitch, timbre, and volume; visual - by saturation, color tone, etc. The qualitative diversity of sensations reflects the infinite variety of forms of motion of matter.

Sensitivity level stability- duration of maintaining the required intensity of sensations.

Duration of sensation- its time characteristics. It is also determined by the functional state of the sensory organ, but mainly by the time of action of the stimulus and its intensity. The latent period for different types of sensations is not the same: for tactile sensations, for example, it is 130 milliseconds, for painful sensations - 370 milliseconds. The sensation of taste occurs 50 milliseconds after applying a chemical irritant to the surface of the tongue.

Just as a sensation does not arise simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus, it does not disappear simultaneously with the cessation of the latter. This inertia of sensations manifests itself in the so-called aftereffect.

The visual sensation has some inertia and does not disappear immediately after the stimulus that caused it ceases to act. The trace of the stimulus remains in the form consistent image. There are positive and negative sequential images. A positive, consistent image in lightness and color corresponds to the initial irritation. The principle of cinema is based on the inertia of vision, on the preservation of the visual impression for a certain period of time in the form of a positive consistent image. The sequential image changes over time, with the positive image being replaced by a negative one. With colored light sources, a transition of a consistent image into an additional color occurs.

SENSITIVITY AND ITS MEASUREMENT

Various sense organs that give us information about the state of the external world around us may be more or less sensitive to the phenomena they display, that is, they can display these phenomena with greater or less accuracy. In order for a sensation to arise as a result of the action of a stimulus on the sense organs, it is necessary that the stimulus causing it reach a certain value. This value is called the lower absolute threshold of sensitivity. Lower absolute sensitivity threshold- minimal stimulus strength, causing a barely noticeable sensation. This is the threshold for conscious recognition of the stimulus.

However, there is a "lower" threshold - physiological. This threshold reflects the sensitivity limit of each receptor, beyond which excitation can no longer occur. This threshold is determined genetically and can only change depending on age or other physiological factors. The threshold of perception (conscious recognition) is much less stable and depends, among other things, on the level of wakefulness of the brain, on the brain’s attention to the signal that has crossed the physiological threshold. Between these two thresholds there is a zone of sensitivity in which the stimulation of receptors entails the transmission of a message, but it does not reach consciousness. Despite the fact that the environment sends us thousands of different signals at any moment, we can only perceive a small part of them.

At the same time, being unconscious, being below the lower threshold of sensitivity, these stimuli (subsensory) are capable of influencing conscious sensations. With the help of such sensitivity, for example, our mood can change, in some cases they influence a person’s desires and interest in certain objects of reality.

Currently, there is a hypothesis that in the zone* below the level of consciousness - in the subthreshold zone - signals perceived by the senses are possibly processed by the lower centers of our brain. If this is so, then every second there must be hundreds of signals that pass by our consciousness, but are nevertheless registered at lower levels.

This hypothesis allows us to find an explanation for many controversial phenomena. Especially when it comes to perceptual protection, subliminal and extrasensory perception, and awareness of inner reality in conditions, for example, of sensory isolation or in a state of meditation.

The fact that stimuli of lesser strength (subthreshold) do not cause sensations is biologically appropriate. At each individual moment, from an infinite number of impulses, the cortex perceives only vital ones, delaying all others, including impulses from internal organs. It is impossible to imagine the life of an organism in which the cerebral cortex would equally perceive all impulses and provide reactions to them. This would lead the body to inevitable death. It is the cerebral cortex that “stands guard” over the vital interests of the body and, raising the threshold of its excitability, transforms irrelevant impulses into subthreshold ones, thereby relieving the body of unnecessary reactions.

Sensation is a reflection of specific, individual properties, qualities, aspects of objects and phenomena of material reality affecting the senses at a given moment.
The physiological basis of sensations is the complex activity of the sense organs.
An anatomical and physiological apparatus specialized for receiving the effects of certain stimuli from the external and internal environment and processing them into sensations is called an analyzer. Each analyzer consists of three parts:

1. Receptor is a sensory organ that converts the energy of external influence into nerve signals. Each receptor is adapted to receive only certain types of influence (light, sound), i.e. has a specific excitability to certain physical and chemical agents.
2. Nerve pathways - along them nerve signals are transmitted to the brain.
3. Brain center in the cerebral cortex.

Sensations are objective, since they always reflect an external stimulus, and on the other hand, they are subjective, since they depend on the state of the nervous system and individual characteristics.

The English physiologist I. Sherrington identified three main classes of sensations:
1. Exteroceptive sensations reflect the properties of objects and phenomena in the external environment (“five senses”). These include visual, auditory, taste, temperature and tactile sensations. Receptors are located on the surface of the body.
2. Interoreceptive sensations reflect the state of the internal organs. These include sensations of pain, hunger, thirst, nausea, suffocation, etc. Painful sensations signal damage and irritation of human organs and are a unique manifestation of the body’s protective functions.
3. Proprioceptive sensations (muscular-motor). These are sensations that reflect the position and movements of our body. With the help of muscle-motor sensations, a person receives information about the position of the body in space, the relative position of all its parts, the movement of the body and its parts, the contraction, stretching and relaxation of muscles, the condition of joints and ligaments, etc.
Group I - distant sensations:
1. Vision - electromagnetic vibrations, reflection of light from objects.
2. Hearing - sound vibrations.
3. Smell - odorous particles, chemical analysis.
Group II - contact sensations:
4. Tactile - sensations of touch and pressure. Even a slight decrease in tactile sensitivity negatively affects the psyche. Most sensitive:
a) tongue
b) lips,
c) fingertips.
5. Temperature - separate receptors for cold and heat. Body temperature is taken as 0.
6. Taste - receptors in the papillae of the tongue that respond to the chemical composition of food.
7. Vibration sensitivity - reaction to low-frequency environmental vibrations. The most ancient sensitivity. The progenitor of hearing and tactile sensations. There are no special receptors; all body tissues are involved in transmitting information.
8. Pain sensitivity - serves the instinct of self-preservation. People without pain sensitivity do not live to be 10 years old.
Group III - sensations related to the body itself:
Sensations about events inside the body.
9. Vestibular - determine how the body is positioned in relation to gravity. Needed to understand where is up and where is down. Receptors in the inner ear.
10. Muscular – kinesthetic, dynamic, musculoskeletal, proprioception. Special sensors in all muscles, tendon attachments and joints. React to tension and relaxation. Thanks to them, we can tell what our body is doing with our eyes closed. All types of skeletal movements are regulated by the psyche with the participation of muscle sensations.
11. Introceptive sensations - interoreception - the combined result of the work of several types of sensors inside the body (chemoreceptors - chemical events inside the body, baroreceptors - react to changes in pressure, pain, etc.). Often they do not reach the psyche, the realization. Controlled by subcortical structures. What comes to consciousness (Sechenov): “the dark gross feeling of the body” is poorly understood, undifferentiated. Events within the body influence types of sensory sensitivities externally.

Properties of sensations:
1. Adaptation is the adaptation of sensitivity to constantly acting stimuli.
2. Contrast - a change in the intensity and quality of sensations under the influence of a previous or accompanying stimulus.
3. Sensitization - increased sensitivity under the influence of the interaction of sensations and exercises.
4. Synesthesia manifests itself in the fact that sensations of one modality can be accompanied by sensations of another modality.
Not every stimulus acting on the receptor endings of one or another analyzer is capable of causing a sensation. To do this, it is necessary that the stimulus has a certain magnitude or strength.
The lower absolute threshold of sensation is the minimum magnitude, or strength, of a stimulus at which it is capable of causing nervous excitation in the analyzer sufficient for the occurrence of sensation.
The absolute sensitivity of one or another sense organ is characterized by the value of the lower threshold of sensation. The lower the value of this threshold, the higher the sensitivity of this analyzer. Most analyzers have very high sensitivity. For example, the absolute lower threshold of auditory sensation, measured in units of pressure of air sound waves on the eardrum, is on average 0.001 boron in humans. How great this sensitivity is can be judged by the fact that one boron is equal to one millionth of normal atmospheric pressure. The sensitivity of the visual analyzer is even higher. The absolute lower threshold for the sensation of light is 2.5-10" erg/sec. With such sensitivity, the human eye can detect light at a distance of one kilometer, the intensity of which is only a few thousandths of a normal candle.
The upper absolute threshold of sensation corresponds to the maximum value of the stimulus, above which this stimulus ceases to be felt. Thus, the absolute upper threshold of audibility of tones in humans is on average 20,000 vibrations of sound waves per second.

Feelings - the simplest mental process consisting of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena during their direct impact on the corresponding receptors

Receptors - these are sensitive nerve formations that perceive the influence of the external or internal environment and encode it in the form of a set of electrical signals. These signals then go to the brain, which decodes them. This process is accompanied by the emergence of the simplest mental phenomena - sensations.

All receptors can be divided into distant , which can perceive irritation at a distance (visual, auditory, olfactory) and contact (taste, tactile, pain).

Analyzer - the material basis of sensations

Sensations are the product of activity analyzers person. An analyzer is an interconnected complex of nerve formations that receives signals, transforms them, configures the receptor apparatus, transmits information to nerve centers, processes it and deciphers it. I.P. Pavlov believed that the analyzer consists of three elements: sense organ , conductive path And cortical section . According to modern concepts, the analyzer includes at least five sections: receptor, conductor, tuning unit, filtering unit and analysis unit. Since the conductor section is essentially just an electrical cable that conducts electrical impulses, the most important role is played by the four sections of the analyzer. The feedback system allows you to make adjustments to the operation of the receptor section when external conditions change (for example, fine-tuning the analyzer with different impact forces).

Thresholds of sensations

In psychology, there are several concepts of sensitivity threshold

Lower absolute sensitivity threshold defined as the lowest strength of stimulus that can cause sensation.

Bouguer-Weber law: “The discrimination threshold for each analyzer has

constant relative value":

DI / I = const, where I is the strength of the stimulus

Classificationsensations

3. Proprioceptive sensations (muscular-motor). These are sensations that reflect the position and movements of our body. With the help of muscle-motor sensations, a person receives information about the position of the body in space, the relative position of all its parts, the movement of the body and its parts, the contraction, stretching and relaxation of muscles, the condition of joints and ligaments, etc. Muscle-motor sensations are complex. Simultaneous stimulation of receptors of different quality gives sensations of a unique quality: stimulation of receptor endings in the muscles creates a feeling of muscle tone when performing a movement; sensations of muscle tension and effort are associated with irritation of the nerve endings of the tendons; irritation of the receptors of the articular surfaces gives a sense of direction, shape and speed of movements. Many authors include in this same group of sensations the sensations of balance and acceleration, which arise as a result of stimulation of the receptors of the vestibular analyzer.

Properties of sensations

Sensations have certain properties:

·adaptation,

·contrast,

thresholds of sensations

·sensitization,

·consecutive images.

And the person’s emotions? It is this issue that we decided to devote today’s article. After all, without these components we would not be people, but machines that do not live, but simply exist.

What are the sense organs?

As you know, a person learns all the information about the world around him through his own. These include the following:

eyes;
language;
leather.

Thanks to these organs, people feel and see the objects around them, as well as hear sounds and taste. It should be noted that this is not a complete list. Although it is usually called the main one. So what are the feelings and sensations of a person who has functioning not only of the above organs, but also of other organs? Let's consider the answer to the question posed in more detail.

Eyes

The sensations of vision, or rather color and light, are the most numerous and diverse. Thanks to the presented body, people receive about 70% of information about the environment. Scientists have found that the number of visual sensations (of various qualities) of an adult, on average, reaches 35 thousand. It should also be noted that vision plays a significant role in the perception of space. As for the sensation of color, it completely depends on the length of the light wave that irritates the retina, and the intensity depends on its amplitude or so-called scope.

Ears

Hearing (tones and noises) gives a person approximately 20 thousand different states of consciousness. This sensation is caused by air waves that come from the sounding body. Its quality depends entirely on the magnitude of the wave, its strength on its amplitude, and its timbre (or sound coloring) on its shape.

Nose

The sensations of smell are quite varied and very difficult to classify. They occur when the upper part of the nasal cavity, as well as the mucous membrane of the palate, is irritated. This effect occurs due to the dissolution of the smallest odorous substances.

Language

Thanks to this organ, a person can distinguish different tastes, namely sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

Leather

Tactile sensations are divided into feelings of pressure, pain, temperature, etc. They occur during irritation of nerve endings located in tissues, which have a special structure.

What feelings does a person have? In addition to all of the above, people also have feelings such as:

Static (body position in space and a sense of its balance). This feeling occurs during irritation of the nerve endings that are located in the semicircular canals of the ear.
Muscular, joint and tendon. They are very difficult to observe, but they are of the nature of internal pressure, tension and even slip.
Organic or somatic. Such feelings include hunger, nausea, sensations of breathing, etc.

What are the feelings and emotions?

A person’s emotions and inner feelings reflect his attitude towards any event or situation in life. Moreover, the two named states are quite different from each other. Thus, emotions are a direct reaction to something. This happens at the animal level. As for feelings, this is a product of thinking, accumulated experience, experiences, etc.

What feelings does a person have? It is quite difficult to answer the question posed unambiguously. After all, people have a lot of feelings and emotions. They give a person information about needs, as well as feedback on what is happening. Thanks to this, people can understand what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. After realizing the feelings that have arisen, a person gives himself the right to any emotion, and thereby he begins to understand what is happening in reality.

List of basic emotions and feelings

What are the feelings and emotions of a person? It is simply impossible to list them all. In this regard, we decided to name only a few. Moreover, they are all divided into three different groups.

Positive:

pleasure;
jubilation;
joy;
pride;
delight;
trust;
confidence;
admiration;
sympathy;
love (or affection);
love (sexual attraction to a partner);
respect;
gratitude (or appreciation);
tenderness;
complacency;
tenderness;
gloat;
bliss;
feeling of satisfied revenge;
feeling of self-satisfaction;
feeling of relief;
anticipation;
feeling of security.

Negative:

Neutral:

astonishment;
curiosity;
amazement;
calm and contemplative mood;
indifference.

Now you know what feelings a person has. Some to a greater extent, some to a lesser extent, but each of us has experienced them at least once in our lives. Negative emotions that are ignored and not recognized by us do not just disappear. After all, the body and soul are one, and if the latter suffers for a long time, then the body takes on some part of its heavy burden. And it’s not for nothing that they say that all diseases are caused by nerves. The influence of negative emotions on human well-being and health has long been a scientific fact. As for positive feelings, the benefits of them are clear to everyone. After all, experiencing joy, happiness and other emotions, a person literally consolidates in his memory the desired types of behavior (feelings of success, well-being, trust in the world, people around him, etc.).

Neutral feelings also help people express their attitude towards what they see, hear, etc. By the way, such emotions can act as a kind of springboard to further positive or negative manifestations.

Thus, by analyzing his behavior and attitude to current events, a person can become better, worse, or remain the same. It is these properties that distinguish people from animals.