Cognitive Psychology in the Centre for Cognitive Programs and Technologies
Within this direction of the Centre for Cognitive Programs and Technologies the scientists of L. S. Vygotsky Institute of Psychology work according to the project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. The project is called “Cognitive-psychological mechanisms of raising new specialists’ efficiency in modern Russia”.
The psychology of professional activity and psychology of experts (professionals, who have high qualification in their fields) is fundamental scientific area in which the project is being implemented. This area has been intelsively developing during the last 10-15 years and it is one of the most difficult and problematic issues. That is the reason why the psychologists are being awarded with the Nobel Prizes in this particular sphere (H. Simon, D. Kahneman).
The applied area for the planned results is the whole area of training procedures and technologies. It is optimization of professional education processes (higher education, programs of highly qualified professionals retraining, MBA programs) where the research results of the project have to be used. The new knowledge of cognitive and psychological mechanisms providing high level of professional achievements is focused on increasing of different training methods efficiency. The most significant results characterize the process of the solution of dynamic semistructured problems, as such knowledge is insufficiently considered during different training programs development.
On the basis of the theoretical analysis of a problem of cognitive and psychological mechanisms of professional qualities development our research team carried out a number of the researches during the previous years. They elaborated the list of professions and professional groups which will serve as the basis for the following researches. The professional groups have been selected on various bases and for the solution of different research tasks.
Thus, a selected group of qualified psychiatrists will participate in the research of complex types of professional causal thinking in the sphere of establishing differential medical diagnosis. The peculiarities of emotionally coloured information perception in the field of sounds perception will be studied on a group of professional performing musicians. A group of qualified researchers in the field of biochemistry and genetics will participate in studying the abilities of the professional research tasks solution. A group of highly-qualified chess players will participate in the study of representation of problematic situations. These will be novel researches in the Russian psychology.
For the first time in the world science a selected group of high-class cooks (the so-called "chefs") will participate in the study of the accuracy of professionally significant time spans estimation. A group of Russian Federation special services agents will participate in the study of lie detection, while the resistance to emotive influences will be studied on a selected group of rescuers.
Also, for the first time in Russian psychology some types of high-level professional skills and abilities (like solution of dynamic semistructured tasks) will be created in the course of the experimental procedure.