No 4 (2015)

I find that exactly two stages can be seen directly in sequential free recall distributions. These distributions show that the first three recalls come from the emptying of working memory, recalls 6 and above come from a second stage and the 4th and 5th recalls are mixtures of the two.A discontinuity, a rounded step function, is shown to exist in the fitted linear slope of the recall distributions as the recall shifts from the emptying of working memory (positive slope) to the second stage (negative slope). The discontinuity leads to a first estimate of the capacity of working memory at 4-4.5 items. The total recall is shown to be a linear combination of the content of working memory and items recalled in the second stage with 3.0-3.9 items coming from working memory, a second estimate of the capacity of working memory. A third, separate upper limit on the capacity of working memory is found (3.06 items), corresponding to the requirement that the content of working memory cannot exceed the total recall, item by item. This third limit is presumably the best limit on the average capacity of unchunked working memory.The second stage of recall is shown to be reactivation: The average times to retrieve additional items in free recall obey a linear relationship as a function of the recall probability which mimics recognition and cued recall, both mechanisms using reactivation (Tarnow, 2008).

The paper presents the results of the research devoted to the study of gender characteristics of self- esteem and self-attitude in adolescence. Namely, the work considers the theoretical framework of the study and some empirical results of self-assessment and self- attitude. Adolescence was not chosen by chance. It is at this time that there happens a qualitative transformation of consciousness, when the former, children’s and adolescents’ self-image changes and becomes more mature, objective. The analysis of the literature showed that the problem of identifying the level of self-esteem and self-attitude still remains topical and one of the most studied, especially because the work was focused on gender differences. When there were questions about the study of self-comprehension of the person, the task of reconstruction of the ontogenesis of the conscious self was solved through observing the children and through the analysis of graphic images and texts. Since the 1930s the interest in the study of consciousness has increased dramatically and still has not subsided. As a rule, the subject of such studies are the structure and components of self-consciousness, i.e. how the individual perceives and describes him/herself, what properties of the body and the personality he/she realizes more clearly; mental processes and operations with the help of which the individual realizes, evaluates and defines him/ herself and his/her behavior; the psychological functions of self-consciousness, i.e. how adequate the self-image and personal self-assessment are, what role they play in the self-regulation of behavior.

The article analyzes the results of the empirical research of adaptability as a basic characteristic of a personality; it was conducted on a sample of the representatives of different nationalities of African students. The research was made with the use of the capsule version of the blank methods, elaborated by A.I Krupnov, as well as the qualitative analysis of the adaptability components manifestation and the connections between them with the use of the correlation analysis. The qualitative analysis of the manifestation degree of each adaptability component shows that the adaptation index has the highest ranking. This proves that African students can adjust well to the new social and cultural environment while taking classes. However the respondents showed high levels of nostalgia and detachment. These feelings are accompanied by negative emotions (emotional stress) and prevent a normal integration into the new society. The development of the self-confidence and addressing the affective disposition can be regarded as the major resources for compensation and correction of the negative influence of adaptability weaknesses. At the same time there is a connection between nostalgia and adaptation parameters. This phenomenon is the indicative of a positive role of experiencing a painful homesickness in the process of adaptation of the African students. This refers to the two-directional functional ability of nostalgia and its value for the successful integration into a new society.

This article analyzes Russian women and their ability to embrace Western educational and business practices following the fall of the Soviet Union. As recently as the 1980s, women managers in Russia were rare. Today, a total of 42 percent of senior management posts in Russia are held by women. Unlike women in Western nations who tend to frame their emerging role in ideological terms, Russian women enrolled in academic programs that gave them valuable skills for the market economy. The paper also shows that Russian women are adapting to these changes more rapidly than men.This study explores the considerable changes that have taken place in business education as Russia has adapted to the needs of a world economy. The Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is now popular across Russia and is the source of the new business management concepts that explain the data. Russians are now far more likely to speak English, to work in a service-related job, to hold personal investment portfolios and to be able to work outside of Russia. These are massive changes compared to the years before 1991. New business curricula have played a role in making these changes happen.

Longitudinal data obtained in the study of the influence of education at the third age on cognitive functioning and psychological status of elderly persons is analyzed in the article. The project started in October 2014 and will continue until December 2016. All the participants (N=21) are non-working pensioners with higher non-psychological education; in the project they are studying in the program “Practical psychology”, the duration of education is 2.5 years. As a result of the training the participants have become more confident in the sphere of social relations, they have become more self-confident, the future has stopped to seem meaningless for them. The students have become more confident in their cognitive abilities, their indices of cognitive consciousness and life satisfaction have increased significantly. As a result of the conducted research, it was revealed that learning in elderly years influences significantly the psychological well-being of elderly students. The improvement of cognitive functioning by the end of the first semester (six months after the beginning) was revealed as well. It is assumed that the improvement of cognitive functioning is due to changes in neuronal structures, as more time is necessary for these qualitative and quantitative changes.

The article describes the conditions of intellectual development of preschool children during foreign language teaching in the developmental subject-spatial environment of a preschool educational institution. The creation of developing educational and subject-spatial environment gives the opportunity to implement different programs. When creating the developing educational environment a particular emphasis is given to the foreign language. Teaching a foreign language helps reach the goals not only of the formation of foreign language communicative skills of preschool children, of introduction to a foreign culture, but also solve challenges of his intellectual development. Several types of interaction of the child with objects of the surrounding world are identified. They are latent, real and mediated. The main ways to stimulate intellectual development of the preschool child are described (the creation of a favorable psychological environment; ensuring the opportunity to actively ask questions of divergent type due to the enrichment of meaningful context of a child’s life; the widespread use of questions relating to the most diverse areas with the aim of developing children’s observation). These methods can be considered as pedagogical conditions which will allow us to create the environment for the personal development of the child. The article presents the experience of their implementation. The main approach is integrative-game. This approach supposes the inclusion the integration of different types of children’s activities (visual, musical-rhythmic, theatrical) for the joint execution of tasks focused on the development of the child in the process of foreign language teaching.