Vol 21, No 1 (2024)

It is believed that bilingualism contributes to the enhancement of executive functions in bilingual individuals as they need to constantly control the simultaneous activation of two or more languages in their brains. However, decades of research have led to contradictory conclusions regarding the existence of bilingual advantage. One of the promising approaches to resolving these contradictions is a more detailed examination of bilingual language experience. The aim of this study was twofold. First is to empirically test the language entropy method as a way of measuring variability in bilingual language use in different interaction contexts. Second is to examine the relationship between bilinguals’ language entropy and executive functions (cognitive flexibility, goal maintenance, conflict monitoring). The study involved 111 bilinguals (mean age = 20.5 (2.97); 75.7% female), who are speakers of Adyghe-Russian and Tatar-Russian languages. The battery of instruments included a questionnaire on demographic and language experience, containing questions to calculate language entropy in four contexts (home, university, work, free time), a Color-shape switching task to measure executive functions (domains of cognitive flexibility, goal updating, conflict monitoring), and Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test to assess nonverbal intelligence. The results demonstrated that language entropy of the bilinguals from both regions did not exceed a score of 0.66 in all the contexts which indicates the use of predominantly one language in everyday communications. However, in the “university” context, bilinguals speaking Tatar and Russian used languages in a more balanced way than bilinguals speaking Adyghe and Russian languages. The results suggest that the language entropy method can be highly effective for characterizing bilingual language experience. The results also showed that there was no relationship between language entropy of the bilinguals in this study and their executive functions (domains of cognitive flexibility, goal updating, conflict monitoring). This is consistent with the predictions of the Adaptive Control Hypothesis.

A quality therapeutic alliance, as a component of a successful psychotherapeutic process, provides a trusting relationship and effective collaboration between psychotherapist and client. This narrative review examines research that explores the relationship between psychophysiological measures of psychotherapy participants and their subjective perceptions of alliance quality. The results of 10 empirical articles, selected after a systematic literature search, are presented within several paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs analyzes and discusses studies using measures of the same human body system, followed by recommendations for further research in the conclusion. Thus, as a result of the analysis of the selected sources, the perceived quality of the alliance showed a positive relationship with the synchronization of brain activity indices, heart rate variability, heart rate, skin electrical activity, and breathing patterns between the participants in the process. However, the only study examined the contribution of participants' individual heart rate variability indices, which showed a relationship only for the client alliance. At the same time, the structure of interrelationships between alliance components and psychophysiological parameters differed depending on the number of participants: in dyadic, in family, in the presence of a supervisor or a second therapist. Recorded changes in physiological parameters may reflect both the patterns of participants' cognitive processes and their affective states - and together add to the understanding of the dynamic process of establishing and experiencing an alliance between participants in a psychotherapy session. Future research should unify the research design, continue to clarify the role of interpersonal synchronization in alliance experience, pay attention to differences in couples and group psychotherapy, and examine multiple psychophysiological variables simultaneously using a multilevel approach.

In adults, the rate of stimuli presentation has been shown to play a critical role for the event related potentials (ERP): its components become larger as presentation rate decreases. But there are few works evaluating developmental changes of this ERP modulation that might provide insights into basic forms of learning. The current study aims to examine the developmental changes in the effect of the presentation rate on ERP. Participants (N = 48) of four age groups (2-7, 8-11, 12-17 and 18-35 years old) were presented with auditory tone (1000 Hz) at three different stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA): 0.9, 1.8, and 3.6 s. During stimuli presentation 28-channels electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Amplitude of ERP components increased with SOA prolongation. However, this effect was differently pronounced in each of the age groups, depending on the component and cortical site. N1P1 amplitude was increased from 0.9 to 1.8 s SOA in two oldest groups (12-17 years old and adults) predominantly at fronto-central sites. Similar increase demonstrated P2N1 component but starting from younger group (8-11 years old). Only the adult group was characterized by a significant increase in N1P1 and P2N1 amplitudes with SOA increase from 1.8 to 3.6 s. Thus, the effect of presentation rate on ERP is not fully mature even at adolescence and depends on the component with P2N1 amplitude showing modulations at younger age.

The social category ‘borrowers’ is heterogeneous in a number of indicators. The article raises the problem of differences in the psychological characteristics of borrowers who prefer formal loans and loans from private individuals. The purpose of the study is to analyze the psychological characteristics of consumers of various types of loans. Based on previous research, the authors identified for analysis variables such as time perspective and long-term orientation of the individual, consideration of the consequences of one’s behavior, level of generalized trust, moral foundations, social beliefs and attitudes towards debt, which were presumably associated with people’s preferred type of borrowing. The sample consisted of users of financial services with various types of loans ( N = 1974); they were divided into three groups, homogeneous by type of loans: (1) the respondents who had only loans received from relatives, friends or acquaintances ( N = 97), (2) the respondents who had only loans from microfinance organizations (MFO) ( N = 97), and (3) the respondents who had only consumer loans ( N = 103). The analysis was carried out using the following methods and techniques: The Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) by J. Haidt (adapted by O.A. Sychev), The Long-Term Orientation of Personality (LTOP) by T.A. Nestik, The Consideration for Future Consequences (CFC) by A. Strathman (adapted by T.A. Nestik), a short version of The Dual Process Model Scales by J. Duckitt (adapted by D.S. Grigoriev), a short version of The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) , The World Value Survey (WVS) , The Personal Belief in a Just World Scale by K. Dalbert with two subscales: belief in the justice of the world and belief in the justice of the world in relation to oneself (adapted by S.K. Nartova-Bochaver), and The Debt Behavior Express Inventory . In each group of the respondents, significant differences were found in the structure of relationships among the studied parameters. The results showed that the respondents who had only non-institutional loans, in contrast to those who had exclusively bank or MFO loans, were less loyal to their group (low traditionalism), which in their perceptions was associated with reduced trust in (regional) authorities. This may indicate the autonomy of these borrowers in social terms. The limitations of the study were also noted. Finally, the prospects for further research were outlined and the possibilities of practical use of the results obtained were determined.

The need to take into account cultural diversity in music education is recognized today in scientific communities of different countries. A relevant area of foreign research is the conceptualization of multicultural music education and the methodology for developing students’ intercultural competence. Despite the fact that the multicultural focus of music educational programs has been outlined at the international and national levels, the theoretical and methodological foundations for developing students’ intercultural competence through the study of music of different nations remain underdeveloped. Most foreign studies reveal either the conceptual focus of multicultural music education, or the experimental one, showing the developing potential of a multicultural approach to teaching music in individual cases. The accumulation of positive experience in intercultural interaction through ethnomusical dialogue in world practice necessitates its further theoretical and methodological understanding. The author of this article compares and generalizes foreign and domestic experience in using different methods for developing students’ intercultural competence by means of music, as well as to typologize the tested methods within the framework of four fundamental approaches, namely ethnomusicological (musical-cultural), subject-activity, anthropological (musical-psychological) and personality-oriented (humane-personal) ones. Considering that there are very few studies to date that demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches in multicultural music education, the author also attempts to theoretically substantiate them based on foreign and domestic experience. In addition, the article offers a number of conceptual and theoretical justifications for the comprehensive application of these approaches in developing students’ intercultural competence by means of multicultural music practices. Systematization of international experience will make it possible to consider the construct of intercultural competence in an expanded, integrative dimension with regard to multicultural music education, which creates a basis for building theoretical and methodological relationships between educational categories of different levels: from conceptual and methodological approaches to methods of their implementation and the expected result, i.e., the development of various components of intercultural competence.

Nuclear medicine is rapidly advancing simultaneously in several areas, which include: developing and producing radiopharmaceuticals (RPs), manufacturing diagnostic equipment and creating related infrastructure, as well as modeling competences for specialists working with a complex category of patients. Due to the novelty and large scale of the tasks associated with the implementation of these advancements, which directly concern nuclear medicine doctors, there is a need to describe their professional profile as a key component of the entire system. The purpose of this work was to conduct a professional analysis of the current work tasks of nuclear medicine doctors to subsequently identify the degree of compliance between the actual activities carried out and existing regulatory requirements. To collect professional material, semi-structured interviews were conducted with doctors of various specialties in the field of nuclear medicine, which were supplemented by an analysis of personnel, information and reference, and administrative documentation of organizations. However, as it turns out, the documentation (professional standards) regulating the activities of nuclear medicine doctors is currently either in the process of development or approval, or simply missing. The documents that currently regulate the activities of doctors do not fully reflect the actual work tasks performed due to the fact that nuclear medicine employees are “interdisciplinary” specialists. The case study of radiologists shows that in order to carry out their work, they need to undergo a system of double certification of activities, and then subsequent training directly on the job under the supervision of an experienced physician mentor. The current situation in nuclear medicine highlights several problem areas related to: (1) determining the degree of adequacy of existing educational programs for the subsequent full implementation of their activities by doctors; (2) discussing the problem of additional burden on employers and, as a result, on employees acting as mentors; and (3) identifying specific additional labor functions and tasks associated with working with high-tech equipment (sophisticated medical devices or medical information systems), which for the most part are not unified and depend on the organization. The developed professiograms for a radiologist and a radiotherapist, taking into account real work tasks, which can be divided into several blocks, can become the basis for creating targeted training programs for specialists, monitor in real time the features of adaptation of specialists to the requirements of nuclear medicine and reasonably resolve issues of selecting doctors to the appropriate medical centers.

The article is devoted to one of the topical problems of modern psychology - the development of self-awareness in children - as it is considered in the psychology of giftedness. The study was aimed at identifying ‘self-image’ features in creatively gifted senior preschool children. It was carried out in line with the scientific approach proposed by A.M. Matyushkin to the study of giftedness as a prerequisite for the development of a creative personality. The study involved 290 children aged 6-7 years ( M = 6.6; SD = 0.54; boys = 143, girls = 147) attending preschool educational institutions in Moscow. The creative potential of the participants (senior preschool children) was identified using Figural Form A of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), as well as on the basis of observations, surveys of teachers and parents, and expert assessments of the children’s creative works. The results made it possible to identify a group of gifted senior preschoolers with high creative potential ( N = 52, boys = 26, girls = 26) and a group of their peers, equal in quantitative composition and gender distribution, whose creative potential was lower. The child’s ‘self-image’ features were revealed during a conversation based on the Twenty Statements Test - TST (M. Kuhn and Th. McPartland, modified by T.V. Rumyantseva) and the Study of the System of Children’s Self-Characteristics (O.A. Belobrykina). The analysis of the obtained data showed the relationship between the results of the Torrance Test performed by the senior preschoolers and the number of their self-characteristics. The following differences between the groups were highlighted: the gifted children named more characteristics when describing themselves than their peers; this was especially true for such subcategories of answers as ‘gender’, ‘age’, ‘role in society’, ‘role in the family’, ‘physical qualities’, ‘communication’, ‘abilities’, and ‘general’. The analysis of the ‘self-image’ structural components revealed that the group of the gifted children, to a greater extent than the group of their peers, represented the indicators of the social, communicative, physical, active and reflexive components. All this indicates a greater volume and greater degree of cognitive complexity and differentiation of the ‘self-image’ in the gifted senior preschoolers compared to their peers. At the same time, the following ‘self-image’ aspects common to both groups were identified: the predominance of self-characteristics of the subjective category (personality traits, skills, etc.) and emotionally positive responses. A comparison of the ‘self-images’ between the gifted boys and gifted girls showed that the girls had more pronounced ‘emotional characteristics (cheerful)’, ‘description of appearance (beautiful)’ and ‘role in the family’. The results obtained can be used in creating programs aimed at the emotional and personal development of gifted preschoolers, as well as in the process of consultative work on the prevention/correction of difficulties in the upbringing of preschoolers.

The insula is a brain region located on the lateral part of the brain. Previous findings show that the insula serves as a multimodal hub through which information is transmitted. In a recent group level analysis the insula, the anterior cingulate and the cingulate gyrus were found to be marked with prevalent clusters. In this study an attempt is made to confirm these findings and evaluate their significance by conducting a region of interest analysis (ROI). A group of 20 participants underwent an fMRI scan while solving mathematical problems of various degrees of difficulty. After the completion of each problem, they were asked to rate the difficulty of the current task from one to four (one corresponding to “very easy” and four corresponding to “very difficult”). The fMRI scanner was used to collect brain signal during the mathematical cognition and also the metacognition phase of the experiment. Signal corresponding to brain activation for each task was analyzed from various areas by conducting an ROI analysis and a t-test was used to determine the level of significance. Brain regions that were shown to be active in the group level analysis (right insula, left anterior cingulate and left/right middle frontal gyri) were confirmed to be active by the ROI analysis.