LABORATORY OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Head of Laboratory: Chepeleva Natalia V., full member of the National academy of pedagogical sciences of Ukraine, doctor of psychological science, professor.

The laboratory was established in May 1999.

Cognitive psychology is one of the most widespread areas of modern psychological science being actively developed in recent decades. The scope of its interests includes such fundamental problems as study of the process of cognition, ways and forms of organizing personal experience, comprehension and understanding of surrounding reality by personality. The problem of knowledge, its nature, methods of obtaining, transformation in human consciousness, actualization during activity remains relevant and poorly understood. Cognitive factors play an important role in the social, age and educational psychology, as well as in applied fields of research (clinical, practical, organizational, etc.).

Ukrainian psychological science also has a tradition of researching problems included in the jurisdiction of cognitive psychology. First of all, we mean H.S.Kostyuk's study of problems of thinking and understanding, H.S.Synytsya's and B.F.Bayev's study of speech, P.I.Zinchenko's study of memory, S.D.Maksymenko's and O.V.Skrypchenko's study of problems of development of thinking and other cognitive processes, etc. The continuation of the fundamental ideas of these researchers is the study of psychological patterns of understanding and interpretation of personal experience, which is conducted in laboratory of cognitive psychology.

Investigations are based on the assumption that one of the major cognitive processes is the process of understanding that covers all spheres of human activity - education, communication, comprehension of ourselves and the surrounding world, and so on. The problem of understanding recently has become one of central problems of not just psychology but all the humanities sciences as well. It attracts attention of specialists in the theory of knowledge, logic and methodology of science, researchers in sociology, aesthetics, history and philology. It is connected first of all with the fact that modern culture is increasingly dealing with situations where there is a need in understanding, which is more and more recognized as an important fact of the spiritual life of the person. The very nature of modern communication processes, interpretation, comprehension of various kinds of messages highlights the need to develop a general theory of understanding.

Research of the problems of understanding has quite a long tradition in psychological science. However there are many unresolved questions concerning the psychological mechanisms of understanding, its links with other mental processes, especially thinking and speech, psychological and other factors that cause this process. The personality aspect of understanding is practically not elaborated; the importance of it is increasingly understood by researchers who develop this problems. First of all it concerns human understanding and interpretation of his/her own experience and surrounding reality, the elucidation of the mechanisms and factors of this phenomenon and its impact on behavior and personal development.

In view of the above, range of matters being explored at the cognitive psychology laboratory includes the problem of understanding and interpreting written messages of various kinds, self understanding and understanding of others, the problem of effective methods of interaction with written texts of various kinds (educational, scientific, artistic, etc.), and with other people. The practical yield of research is to develop methodological procedures and recommendations for building psychologically grounded educational and popular scientific texts for pupils and students, designing effective psychotherapeutic procedures and technology of interaction aimed at collaboration and understanding.

Main areas of research:

Laboratory launched a new line of research in the national psychology - psychological hermeneutics, which is interpreted as a line of research that should explore the psychological aspect of general hermeneutical perspective, i.e. the problem of understanding and interpreting reality, including the psychic reality of man, his personal experience fixed in various texts, clarify the psychological mechanisms of understanding and interpreting verbal and nonverbal messages, their dependence on the personal characteristics.

In view of the above, matters being explored in the cognitive psychology laboratory are:

·                   theoretical and methodological problems of psychological hermeneutics, particularly the determination of psychological mechanisms of human understanding and interpretation of the world and ways of its representation in the mind;

·                   the problems of understanding and interpreting written messages of different nature;

·                   identifying the psychological mechanisms of understanding ourselves, our own experience, which is the basis for effective interaction with the environment and other people;

·                   study of socio-psychological factors of understanding and interpretation of personal experience;

·                   clarifying features of influence of the process of understanding and interpretation of life experience on personal development;

·                   determination of psychological patterns of personal self-designing in discursive space.

The work of the laboratory is also directed to develop methodical procedures and recommendations for the creation of effective procedures and technologies of cooperation aimed at collaboration and mutual understanding which are based on the main provisions of narrative psychology.

During the whole period of its existence, the laboratory investigated 4 scientific research projects, including:

The research "Theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological hermeneutics" (1999 - 2003) has allowed to determine theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological hermeneutics, to develop its conceptual apparatus, to identify psychological mechanisms of understanding and interpretation of personal experience, describe major components of personal experience and basic patterns of their understanding and interpretation.

The research on the theme "Socio-psychological factors of understanding and interpretation of personal experience" (2004 - 2007) has revealed that personal experience is formed as the individual mental model of the world, which is a reflected conglomerate of image and concept and fixes the content and level of man's understanding of self, other people and the environment. The leading trends of constructing mental models are displayed in a self narrative. The basic socio-cultural factors of understanding and interpretation of personal experience have been defined. The leading role of the culture in the assimilation of ways of personal experience comprehension has been shown. The ways of forming a new individual experience by means of two leading mechanisms - semiotic and communicative – have been found. It has been shown that the processes of understanding and interpretation by which a man comprehends and organizes his experience, contribute to the formation of personal identity and maintaining it throughout his life. The semantic features of experience that promote understanding and self-development of personality had been determined.

The research "Understanding and interpretation of experience as a factor of personal development" (2008 - 2012) has revealed that the ability to interpret reality by means of narrative structures is essential to the individual, and the use of specific narrative ways of awareness of the world stands as the basic means of understanding his/her own life or a certain life situation and, moreover, as a special form of human existence, as inherent just to him/her mode of existence. Understanding and interpretation of socio-cultural and personal experience, capturing results of these processes in a form of text (narrative) open psychological space for personal development, its personal, social and cultural identity. The peculiarities of influence of the processes of understanding and interpretation of life experience on personal growth of working youth, students, primary school children, educators and adults of all ages were established. The features of fixing life experience in texts-narratives were revealed. The narrative technologies of personal growth depending on the features of the understanding and interpretation of own life experience by people of different ages and social groups have been developed and approbated.

The results of these studies form the basis of the new research "Personal self-designing in discursive space" (2013 - 2016). Its main idea is that understanding the socio-cultural and individual experience and its implementation in discursive form is the basis for building own personal design, which in its turn is the basis for the formation of life strategy, life individual design and its implementation in various forms of life practices.

The urgency of the research is caused by public demand to determine ways to develop personality, capable to self-development, self-designing, responsible person, able to operate successfully in the changing environment of the modern information society. One of ways of solving this problem is an appeal to post-non-classical methodology that involves socio-historical and cultural context in the study of personality.

The aim of the study is to determine the psychological patterns and determinants of the process of personal self-designing in discursive social and personal spaces.

The main objectives of the study are:

1.                To conduct theoretical and methodological analysis of the problem of personal self-designing in the context of psychological hermeneutics and discursive psychology.

2.                To determine the major socio-cultural factors of discursive self-designing of personality.

3.                To study self-designing as a type of cultural practice.

4.                To determine the main discursive forms of implementation of personal design.

5.                To determine the impact of the processes of understanding and interpretation of socio-cultural and individual human experience on his self-design in discursive space.

6.                To determine discursive means of fixing life experience and their significance for personal self-design.

7.                To find out the specifics of discursive practices of self-designing depending on age and social status of the individual.

12 researchers work in the laboratory on such individual themes:

1.                Psychological patterns of personal self-designing in the context of psychological hermeneutics (Chepeleva N.V., full member of NAPS of Ukraine, doctor of psychological science, prof., head of the Laboratory).

2.                Psychological features of the old person self-designing (Smulson M.L., corresponding member of NAPS of Ukraine, doctor of psychological science, prof., chief researcher).

3.                Discursive practices of adult self-designing (Zaretska O.O., Ph.D. in philology, leading researcher).

4.                Personal self-designing as a type of cultural practice (Lebedynska I.V., Ph.D. in philosophy, leading researcher).

5.                Psychological patterns of development of the ability to self-designing in primary school children (Shilovskaya O.M., Ph.D. in psychology, senior researcher).

6.                Discursive practices of adolescent self-designing (Zazymko O.V., Ph.D. in psychology, senior researcher).

7.                Psychological regularities of the process of personal self-designing in discursive cultural practices (Andrievska V.V., Ph.D. in psychology, senior researcher).

8.                The embodiment of personal design in mythological forms (Gutsol S., Ph.D. in psychology, senior researcher).

9.                Discursive practices of designing the future (Berezko I.V., researcher).

10.           Peculiarities of embodiment of personal design in weblogs (Gudinova I.L., researcher).

11.           Discourse forms of implementation of personal design (Yakovenko L.P., researcher).

12.           Bibliography to study the problem of personal self-designing in discursive space (Chuyenko I.D., junior researcher).

The most significant publications of the laboratory (transliteration):

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi. T 2. Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. Vy`p. 1. - K., 2001.

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi. T 2. Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. –  Vy`p. 2. – K., 2002.

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi. T. 2. Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka. Vy`p. 3 / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. – K.: Milenium, 2005.

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi. T. 2. Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka. Vy`p. 4 / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. – K.: Milenium, 2006.

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi. T. 2. Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka. Vy`p. 5 / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. – K.: DP «Informacijno-anality`chne agentstvo», 2007.

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi. T. 2. Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka. Zb. nauk. pracz` Insty`tutu psy`xologiyi im. G.S. Kostyuka NAPN Ukrayiny` – Vy`p. 6 / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. – K.: DP «Informacijno-anality`chne agentstvo», 2010.

Aktual`ni problemy` psy`xologiyi : zb. nauk. pracz` Insty`tutu psy`xologiyi imeni G. S. Kostyuka NAPN Ukrayiny`;  / [red.kol.: S. D. Maksy`menko (gol.red.), N. V. Chepelyeva (zast.gol.red.), V. O. Molyako ta in.]. – Zhy`tomy`r : Vy`d-vo  ZhDU im. I. Franka, 2011. – T. II.  Psy`xologichna germenevty`ka. – Vy`p. 7.

Problemy` psy`xologichnoyi germenevty`ky` / Za red. N.V. Chepelyevoyi – K.: Milenium, 2004.

Problemyi psihologicheskoy germenevtiki / Pod red. ChepelEvoy N.V. – K.: NPU im. M.P. Dragomanova, 2009.

Social`no-psy`xologichni chy`nny`ky` rozuminnya ta interpretaciyi osoby`stogo dosvidu / Za red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. – K.: Pedagogichna dumka, 2008.

Rozuminnya ta interpretaciya zhy`ttyevogo dosvidu yak chy`nny`k rozvy`tku osoby`stosti : monografiya / za red. N.V. Chepelyevoyi – Kirovograd: Imeks-LTD, 2013.

Chepelyeva N.V., Smul`son M.L., Shy`lovs`ka O.M., Guczol S.Yu. Naraty`vni psy`xotexnologiyi – K.: Glavny`k, 2007.

Chepelyeva N.V., Smul`son M.L., Guczol S.Yu., Shy`lovs`ka O.M. Osnovy` psy`xosemanty`ky` (za naraty`vny`my` texnologiyamy`) / Za zag. red. Chepelyevoyi N.V. – K.: Glavny`k, 2008.

Chepelyeva N.V. Texnologiyi chy`tannya. – K.: Glavny`k, 2004