Summarizing a large number of empirical data, came to the conclusion that already in the third or fifth week of life, the child has a need for external impressions, the appearance

which marks the transition from newborn to infancy. This need is to play a decisive role in all further development child. The new need is significantly different from the simple organic needs that appeared earlier - for food and warmth. If the "engine" of the latter is to a greater extent the desire to overcome negative emotions (to get rid of unpleasant sensations, discomfort), then the basis of the new need is a positive emotion - the elementary joy of knowledge. Therefore, this need is classified as "unsatisfied". If the need for food loses its stimulating power as it is saturated, then new impressions not only cause new positive emotions, but also develop curiosity.

The years of pre-preschool and preschool childhood pass under the sign of the rapid development of this need - to know such a complex and at the same time such an attractive world around.

And then the child comes to the threshold of the school. By this time, his cognitive need reaches a new level, which is expressed in the emergence of interest in solving cognitive problems proper, acquiring new knowledge and skills in the learning process. This need finds its satisfaction in schooling.

However, some time passes, and a strange, paradoxical situation arises. The mental functions of the child are improving - observation develops, logical memory, basic mental operations (analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization), attention becomes more stable, and at the same time, the cognitive need as such in many cases not only does not rise to more high level, but manifests itself much less clearly than at the previous age stage. Researchers describe groups of children whose "cognitive potential" declines significantly with age. Psychologist Z.I. Kalmykova, having studied in detail the peculiarities of the thinking of such children, notes that the older the children, the greater the gap between verbal formulations and the specific reality that they should reflect. These schoolchildren seem to formulate generalized judgments, but verbal formulations mask the passivity of thought, the desire to escape from intellectual tension. Productive Thinking(thinking, acting as the ability to acquire new knowledge, the ability to learn) is replaced by a mechanical reproduction of known provisions.

What are the reasons for this phenomenon? Isn't it the result of the age characteristics of children? Partly yes. In modern science

substantiates the thesis about the presence of so-called sensitive periods in mental development child. The essence of this thesis is that each age period has its own special, unique opportunities.<...>

On closer examination, it becomes clear that, in fact, we are talking not about a decrease in cognitive motivation, but about some change in its direction. Thus, a special study has shown that a junior schoolchild who begins systematic education for the first time usually has to start with mastering outside objects and phenomena. It is this ability that develops especially intensively - to absorb external signs, to remember them without any significant comprehension and processing. Psychologists characterize this ability to cognize the outer side of reality as an age-related feature of a younger student. In this regard, younger students are disadvantageously different from children preschool age, whose mental activity, as you know, is aimed at finding out the reasons for what is happening around ("why?"). But perhaps the reason for the predominant development of this ability in younger students is the peculiarities of the organization of the educational process in primary school, which is really highly oriented towards the description external signs items and memory?

Cognitive need and personal position of the student

The manifestation of a cognitive need essentially depends on the personal position of the student. Let us recall in this connection the widespread last years problem learning. It should be noted that at present there are a number of works on this issue. We want to emphasize only one, but very important, aspect of it, which, apparently, is not given enough attention: problem-based learning is addressed to the student's personality.

As you know, problem-based learning implies the presence of a problem situation, which is characterized by a mismatch between the knowledge already known to the student and the task that needs to be solved. To do this, you need to find new way task, to find means to achieve the goal. However, what has been said is only outer side problem learning. For us, the changes that occur in the student's personality are more important.<...>

Problem-based learning does not impose knowledge on the student. It is based on his interests, based on faith in the ability of the child, by virtue of his intellect. The true essence of problem-based learning is respect for the child's personality. Such training

changes his personality. The student ceases to be a "dependent", "consumer" of knowledge, he ceases to be only a student, and in a certain sense becomes a colleague of the teacher, together with him problem solving. This new position also forms a different attitude towards knowledge that is "assigned" as if by itself in the process of solving a problem, and most importantly: intellectual activity is activated not due to an artificially introduced motive (as was the case, for example, in a special experiment, when a psychologist achieved significant increasing intellectual activity, giving out as a reward for the right decision tasks attractive to the child pictures). Thanks to the new position, the student begins to get satisfaction from the very process of acquiring knowledge. And this means that problem-based learning puts students in a situation somewhat similar to that in which gifted children find themselves: it contributes to the formation of a propensity for mental work.

However, problem-based learning is only one of the ways to develop a cognitive need. The teacher may use other methods to achieve this goal. It is only important that the applied method puts the student in an active position in relation to knowledge.<...>

The highest (and most complex) stage in the development of students' cognitive needs is the development of such a position in which they consciously begin to work on the formation of educational and cognitive motivation in themselves. When organizing such work, it should be borne in mind that the motivation for learning activities is different for different students. different groups schoolchildren. So, for weakly successful people, "avoidance motivation" is characteristic. The strongest motive that prompts such students to learn lessons is the desire to avoid bad grades, troubles from teachers and parents. High-performing students have stronger cognitive motivation. Studies show that in order to form educational and cognitive motivation, it is necessary to organize learning activities so that schoolchildren are guided not only by the knowledge itself, but also by the way of obtaining knowledge. In this case, the teacher evaluates not only the results of the work, but also how these results were obtained; while students themselves are involved in the process of such assessment.

Putting the student in an active position in relation to the acquired knowledge is a condition not only for the development of cognitive needs, but also for the effective education of his abilities.

Chudnovsky V.E. Ability education and formation
personality. - M., 1986. - S. 32-40.

See: Bozhovich L.I. Personality and its formation in childhood: Psychological research. - M., 1968.

See: Productive thinking as the basis of learning. - M., 1981.-S. 113. 178

Back to section

← + Ctrl + →

2. What is a cognitive need?

Three whales of cognitive need

The cognitive need did not immediately acquire the rights of citizenship. For a long time, scientists believed that this need only serves all others. You need to eat, but you need to find food, find out where it is, how to get it - this is where the cognitive need arises. Who are friends, who are enemies, whose territory is again a cognitive need for help. In a word, hunger, thirst, the instinct of procreation, the protection of offspring - the cognitive need serves only as a means of satisfying them.

That is why we know less about the cognitive need than about others. It took a lot of research, a lot of debate among scientists (sometimes bloody in the scientific sense, of course), to make a serious discussion about the cognitive need possible. First of all, its independence was proved. We describe several experiments. The first experiment is rather unusual. The man plunges into the water; the water is not particularly warm and not cold, about 34 degrees. The face is covered with a paraffin mask so that the person cannot see or hear. He also cannot move in water. There is a button that the subject can press if he becomes completely unbearable. All organic needs of necessity are fully satisfied.

It turned out that most of the subjects do not withstand long in this state. Some - two or three hours, some - a little more. All, without exception, characterize their condition in the water as extremely difficult. mental disorders, however, disappeared rather quickly.

What is going on? A person has very comfortable temperature environment, nothing threatens him, he does not experience either hunger or thirst - and yet he has extremely negative emotions. He's bad!

Psychologists have come to the conclusion that a special need is at work here - the need for impressions, the need for an influx of new information. The need for impressions is one of the elementary manifestations of the cognitive need.

Then the experience decided to change a little. Now the subject was no longer immersed in water, but left in an ordinary room. True, not quite normal. The room was closed from external influences, no sounds of any kind reached here, there were no windows in it. The subject was thus completely isolated from the outside world. As in the previous experiment, all the natural needs of a person were completely satisfied, he knew for sure that nothing threatened him. As soon as he is completely unbearable, he can apply symbol, and the experiment will be terminated.

It turned out that a long stay in this psychological chamber was extremely painful for the subjects. And although their stay in these conditions was no longer measured in hours, but in days, the condition of the subjects at the exit was very difficult. And precisely because the cognitive need was not satisfied. As soon as a person was given appropriate intellectual food (books, paper, etc.), the experimental picture changed dramatically.

The independence of cognitive needs from organic needs is already demonstrated by young children. They vividly show this need (stretch for a toy, look around) just when they feel neither hunger nor thirst, when nothing bothers them.

Of course, the cognitive need of a person is completely and only a human characteristic. However, animals also have certain prerequisites for its development; some of the roots of this need can be traced to them.

Here is an experiment demonstrating the independence of the cognitive need in animals.

Bananas have just been placed in the cage where the monkey is sitting. A monkey from another cage extends its paw towards them. The grate is large, so a little effort - and the neighbor will take all the bananas. But at this time, a box appears in the cage, in which something mysteriously knocks (it's just a metronome). At the monkey hard choice, the struggle of motives, as psychologists say. What to prefer? The monkey chooses the box (although not all monkeys do this, and besides, the monkey must be sufficiently fed).

Now psychologists are convinced that the cognitive need is not a servant of other needs, but an independent, independent science of the individual.

The means of satisfying a cognitive need is always new knowledge, new information. It was the absence of new impressions that caused in people that grave condition that arose in the experiments described above.

New knowledge, of course, does not at all mean the need to move to a new object every time. Take, for example, reading books - perhaps the most common way to satisfy a cognitive need. Very often, rereading a book you already know, you suddenly discover something completely new in it. There is even evidence that people who are prone to re-reading books are distinguished by a special depth of mind. And one well-known literary critic believes that any serious book must be read twice without fail. From the first time, the reader learns only the plot of the work or a set of concrete facts; the very same idea of ​​the author, his most important task can be assimilated, already knowing all this specifics. Curious point of view!

By the way, one of the definitions of creativity means getting new information from familiar objects. (Everyone knows what it is; there is someone who doesn't know it, and the result is a discovery.)

The following is also very important: the acquisition of new knowledge does not extinguish the cognitive need, but, on the contrary, strengthens it. The cognitive need in a developed form becomes unsaturated - than more people learns, the more he wants to know.

In this sense (as in many other respects) the cognitive need is fundamentally different from any organic need. In the latter, one can sharply draw a line: the need is there (the person is hungry, thirsty) or has disappeared, satisfied (the person is full, does not feel thirsty).

A real cognitive need cannot be satisfied: it is boundless, as knowledge itself is boundless.

For a long time there was a dispute about how the cognitive need operates - actively or passively.

Proponents of the first point of view believed that as soon as a person begins to get used to environment, he has a specific state of boredom, and he himself is looking for new impressions, new information. There is a need for knowledge. Whatever this need is expressed, it is always active. A person reads books, makes experiments or, at worst, goes to the cinema, buys an illustrated magazine.

Supporters of the second point of view believed that the cognitive need is something like a mirror in which everything is reflected. Something appeared in the field of view - a person makes an assessment (consciously or unconsciously), whether it is new or already familiar, interesting or not, worth considering or not worth considering. If it is new, interesting, then the cognitive need begins to act. In other words, a cognitive need arises when there are already opportunities to satisfy it. Not boredom, i.e., an internal need makes a person look for something new, and external stimuli cause a state of cognitive need. The person passively follows a new stimulus, new problem unable to get away from them.

The dispute was settled by several very striking experiments. We present only some of them.

In the same experiment in the psychological chamber that was described above, there were several subjects in whom a serious condition did not appear at all (or was very smoothed out), despite a long stay in the chamber. It turns out that these subjects found a source of satisfaction of the cognitive need in vigorous activity. They composed poems, came up with tasks. One of the subjects, a mathematician by education, recalling and re-deriving a theorem he had once learned, at the same time deduced several new ones. By the way, these days his condition improved dramatically, and in terms of the total points he endured this very difficult test best of all.

The activity of the cognitive need is especially pronounced in children.

The Belgian scientist Nutten conducted such an experiment. In the experimental room, two automata were installed - A and B. Automaton A was all shiny with multi-colored light bulbs, bright handles. Automator B looked much simpler, there was nothing colorful or bright in it, but on the other hand, in this automaton, the handles could be moved in Depending on this, turn on and off the light bulbs yourself.

When the five-year-old children who participated in the experiment entered the room, then, of course, they first of all paid attention to the elegant machine gun A. After playing with it, they found machine B, and it turned out to be the most interesting for them. The children moved the handles, turned on and off the light bulbs - in a word, they showed cognitive activity.

The experience changed in every possible way, but the conclusion each time turned out to be the same: the kids prefer the most elegant, bright object the one with which they can actively act. (Remember which toys children love the most.)

Now scientists no longer doubt: the cognitive need is characterized primarily by activity.

... Scientists continue to struggle with the famous Fermat's theorem, although its conclusion has long been known. It is not known how it was proven. In a number of sciences - astronomy, biology, medicine - the most complex experiments are being conducted, the results of which will be known only to distant descendants (for example, experiments on long-term suspended animation of animals).

Of course, on the scale of all science, this work is quite understandable. However, what motivates each individual scientist who undertakes work, the result of which is already known, or, on the contrary, will certainly not be known to him? The motivation here is not at all simple, but there is no doubt that there is a need for the very process of searching for truth.

The student wants to solve the problem on his own (there are still such students), although the solution can be obtained from a neighbor.

Ask a friend a riddle and immediately offer a clue, and you will see how your subject's face will stretch. You spoiled for him a small, but still a holiday of the mind - the opportunity to find out on your own to solve this trifling task.

Even in the distorted cognitive need - the love of detective stories - there is the joy of intellectual search. (It is said that an English detective lover filed for divorce from his wife only because she wrote the name of the criminal in the margin. The court considered his statement well-founded.) Montaigne gives an amusing fact. Once, when Democritus was eating honey-smelling figs during dinner, he suddenly wondered where this unusual sweetness came from in figs, and in order to find out, he got up from the table, wanting to inspect the place where these figs were plucked. . His servant, having learned why he was alarmed, laughingly told him not to bother himself: she simply put the figs in a honey vessel. Democritus was annoyed that she had deprived him of an opportunity to investigate and had taken away from him the object that aroused his curiosity. Go away, he told her, you have caused me trouble; I will still look for the cause of this phenomenon as if it were natural. And he did not fail to find some true basis for explaining this phenomenon, although it was false and imaginary.

Of course, like any activity, cognitive activity, driven by a cognitive need, has its own specific goals, its own circle of actions planned according to the result. And the cognitive need also means orientation to a certain result. However, orientation to the result sets only the direction of movement of thought. The cognitive need is, first of all, the need to move towards the result, in the very process of cognition.

The end result here is impossible. Any knowledge, any result is only a milestone, a stage on the path of knowledge.

The activity of the cognitive need, the desire for the very process of cognition is possible only due to another feature of this need - pleasure from mental exertion, associated positive emotional state. Therefore, the cognitive need manifests itself, develops, strengthens as a need, because together with it the mechanism positive emotions. Without emotions, there is no need, including cognitive.

Cognitive activity (but not a need) can be carried out (and sometimes very successfully) without such pleasure - out of a desire to earn an A, a diploma, world fame.

The student diligently studies so that they do not scold at home. A student sits over textbooks during a session to receive a scholarship. This does not apply to cognitive needs. But here is the same student, having come from school and having barely had lunch, grabs a book about animals and, forgetting about everything, reads until he finishes. Having swallowed one book, he takes on the next. Every time the need for knowledge grows. And the more this need is reinforced, the stronger it becomes.

In its highest development, the cognitive need becomes, as already mentioned, insatiable. Impossible to recognise.

Joy at the moment of intellectual activity (which some people experience more, others less intensely, but which is familiar to everyone) can now be registered. Whole line strictly physiological indicators (electroencephalographic, biochemical) indicates that at the moment of intellectual stress, along with the part of the brain occupied with mental work, as a rule, the center of positive emotions is also excited. For some people, this connection is so strong and strong that the deprivation of intellectual activity leads them to a serious condition.

What exactly includes the feeling of pleasure in full-fledged intellectual activity?

Some scientists believe that the matter here is in the mental tone, which becomes optimally high at the time of intense mental activity, i.e. high activity in itself is pleasant. Others believe that joy, pleasure is the result of a certain connection between the center of positive emotions and the activity of the brain departments that are in charge of mental work. We turn on one, and the other turns on at the same time. Evolution, so to speak, took care that But that became hargsth, and chose such a mechanism. Still others believe that at the moment of successful intellectual activity, there is, as it were, a discharge of the search, problematic tension; this produces a sense of satisfaction.

We will not go into scientific disputes in which scientific truth should be born. The fact remains: a full-fledged mental activity causes a feeling of joy, pleasure, and this feeling intensifies and strengthens in the process of intellectual activity.

So, the cognitive need stands on three pillars: activity, the need for the very process of mental activity and the pleasure of mental labor.

← + Ctrl + →
1. Should children be taught to ask questions?3. Needs associated with cognitive

The orientation of the personality is a fairly generalized characteristic that indicates the totality of various motives that cause activity and determine its direction. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the content of the orientation includes a wide range of motives. For example, K.K. Platonov at one time singled out the worldview, ideals, inclinations, interests, desires, inclinations, and beliefs as the main forms of personality orientation. Let's take a look at some of these forms. Personal interests are associated with cognitive needs.

Interest - a form of manifestation of a cognitive need that ensures the orientation of the individual to the realization of the goals of activity and contributes to a more complete knowledge of reality.

Interests are emotional manifestations cognitive needs person. Subjectively, interests are revealed in a positive emotional tone, which acquires the process of cognition, in the desire to become more familiar with an object that has acquired significance, to learn more about it, to understand it. Thus, interests act as a constant incentive mechanism for cognition.

Interests can be classified by content, purpose, breadth and sustainability. By content interests are determined by the objects to which they are directed. Interests differing in content are evaluated from the point of view of their social significance: some - positively, if they correctly combine public and private moments; other - negative as petty, philistine, associated only with the satisfaction of their sensual needs or low passions. The difference on the basis of the goal reveals the presence immediate and mediated interests. The first ones are caused by the emotional attractiveness of a significant object, the second ones take place only when the real meaning of the object and its significance for the individual coincide.

There are broad and narrow interests. The versatile development of the personality implies a greater breadth and versatility of interests in the presence of the main central interest. Narrowness of interests is understood as the presence in a person of one of two limited and isolated interests with complete indifference to everything else. A valuable feature of the personality is the multifocality of interests - substantive interests are located in two (and sometimes in three) areas of activity that are not related to each other.

Interests can be subdivided according to the degree of their stability. The stability of interest is expressed in the duration of preservation of relatively intense interest. Interests that most fully reveal the basic needs of the individual and therefore become essential features of his psychological make-up will be stable. Sustained interest is one of the evidence of the awakening abilities of a person.

Beliefs are another form of personality orientation.

Belief- system perceived needs personality, encouraging her to act in accordance with her views, principles, worldview.

Beliefs are something that is not only understood, comprehended, but also deeply felt, experienced. The content of needs, acting in the form of beliefs, is knowledge about the surrounding world of nature and society, their certain understanding. When this knowledge forms an orderly and internally organized system views, they can be considered as a person's worldview.

We should not forget about another form of orientation - aspirations.

aspirations- these are the motives of behavior, where the need for such conditions of existence and development is expressed, which are not directly represented in this situation, but can be created as a result of a specially organized activity of the individual. If one clearly realizes not only the conditions in which a person feels the need, but also the means that he expects to use, then such aspirations take on the character intentions.

Aspirations can take on various psychological forms. A specific form of human aspirations is, along with intentions, dream as an image of the desired, created by fantasy, prompting a person not only to contemplate in the finished picture what has yet to be done, created and built, but also supporting and strengthening the energy of a person. Passions should also be attributed to aspirations - motives in which needs are expressed that have irresistible force, relegating to the background in human activity everything that is not connected with a significant object, and for a long time invariably determining the direction of thoughts and actions of a person. Unsatisfied passion causes violent emotions. Aspirations are also ideals as the need to imitate or follow the example taken by the individual as a model of behavior.

Of course, the intentions, dreams, passions, ideals and other aspirations of the individual are psychologically characterized and evaluated practically in accordance with their specific content. Dreams, passions, ideals, intentions can be high and low and, depending on this, play a different role in the activities of people and the life of society.

Already from a consideration of the above forms of orientation, one can see what role they play in a person's life. We can agree with the words of the famous Soviet scientist B. I. Dodonov, who wrote: “The orientation of a person is the leading component of the personality structure. Its other components can only be properly defined and evaluated in relation to its direction.