Complex learning and language

LESSON VI COMPLEX LEARNING AND LANGUAGE

Grammar

(a) The Participle

(b) The Absolute Participial Construction

(c) -ed and its functions

Active Vocabulary

1. achieve, v достигать, добиваться achievement, n достижение, успех

2. anxiety, n тревожность, тревога, беспокойство

anxious, adj тревожный, беспокойный; беспокоящийся, трево­жащийся, волнующийся

3. attitude, п 1. установка 2. отношение

4. constant, adj постоянный, непрерывный constant, п, мат. постоянная величина, константа constancy, п постоянство, неизменность

5. convergent, adj конвергентным, сходящийся; ~ thinking конвер- гентное мышление

convergence, п конвергенция

6. cramming, п зубрежка (перед экзаменом) cram, v наспех зазубривать

7. desire, п (сильное) желание

desire, v желать; испытывать желание, хотеть desirable, adj желательный

8. distribute, v распределять

distribution, п 1. распределение 2. мат. дистрибуция distributive, adj распределительный

9. divergent, adj 1. расходящийся 2. спец. Дивергентный; ~ thinking дивергентное мышление

divergence, divergency п 1. расхождение, отклонение 2. спец. ди­вергенция

10. effort, n 1. усилие 2. попытка; to make an ~ сделать попытку,

попытаться, постараться 11 excite, v 1 возбуждать, волновать 2. возбуждать, вызывать; to ~ interest (curiosity, envy) вызывать интерес (любопытство, зависть) excitement, п возбуждение, волнение

12. external, ^'внешний

13. feature, п 1. особенность, характерная черта; признак, свойство

2. pi. черты лица

14. internal, adj внутренний

15. latent, adj скрытый, латентный; ~ learning латентное научение latency, п латентность, скрытое состояние

16. manifest, v обнаруживать, проявлять; делать очевидным; to ~ а desire to do smth. проявлять желание делать что-л.

manifest, adj очевидный, ясный, явный; а ~ truth (error) очевид­ная истина (ошибка) manifestation, п проявление; обнаружение

17. occasional, п случайный

occasion, п 1. случай 2. возможность, благоприятный случай

3. событие 4. основание, причина, повод

18. partial, я^/частичный

19. similar, ad/похожий, подобный similarity, п сходство, подобие

20. skill, п умение; опыт; мастерство; to acquire ~ овладевать мас­терством

skillful, adj умелый, опытный; искусный

21. transfer, п перенос, перенесение; переключение transfer, v переносить, перемещать; переставлять transference, « 1. перенесение; перешд; ~ from one school to another перевод из одной школы в другую 2. спец. передача

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COMPLEX LEARNING AND LANGUAGE

The basic principle of learning is reinforcement. When the stu­dent or learner does something that leads to success he is much more likely to repeat it; when he fails, he is not likely to repeat it. The reinforcements do not necessarily have to occur every time the pupil responds. Occasional, or partial, reinforcement can be some­times more effective than constant reinforcement. The reinforce­ment can be either reward or avoidance of punishment. It is prefera­ble to learn under the incentive of rewards rather than the threat of punishments.

Some degree of motivation is also essential for efficient learning. Human beings can sometimes acquire knowledge without deliberate effort, but the results are limited. This type of learning, which occurs without intention or obvious cause, is called latent learning. One defini­tion of it is: «any learning which is not immediately manifested in performance».

The only way we can be sure that learning has taken place is if it is man­ifested in performance. The performance is brought forth usually under the offer of some sort of reward which the individual is motivated to acquire. So, we may say that we learn better if we want or need to learn.

Many different kinds of conditions of motivation affect the way we learn. If we are trying to teach someone a lesson, his desire to learn will enhance his achievement; but too much motivation can lead to extreme anxiety and excitement which will actually interfere with the learning process. Moderate, not intense desire is needed. External rewards such as marks for classroom work in a school, will be effective only if they are what the student wants. Not only must the reward be desired, but the material to be learned must also have meaning.

Another important condition, especially in the development of skills, is distribution. Distribution of learning and practice allows the material or skill to be much better assimilated. Just as excessive moti­vation interferes with success, so does over-concentrated practice. Study and learning for examinations, for example, should be spread over the entire term and not crammed into the few days before the test. This is not to say that cramming will be ineffective. The performance upon which the student is evaluated is the one he delivers on the examination day. Yi «cramm'mg»Yie'ipsYtim^!iortnat 6ay, lYienYte sYioiYi6 do it. If, however, he wants to retain the material and make a more permanent gain in learning, then the learning should be acquired over a longer period.

Transfer of training is another very important concept; what has been learned in one situation can be used in other situations. A person who has learned to drive one model of car is normally able to drive another model. This enhanced learning experience is called positive transfer. Yet, at the same time, interference may also occur. This inter­ference in effective performance, called negative transfer, is accentu­ated by the similarity in situation.

Complex learning is a process of many associations in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. We must also be able to generalize from these associ­ations and apply them in new situations. This process is called conver­gent or deductive thinking.

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We learn to think and solve problems by both convergent (deductive) and divergent (inductive) thinking.

The most important single feature of complex human learning is lan­guage. Languages are made up of signs and symbols, and these must be learned in the same way as other things are learned. Once they have been learned then they and the way the brain associates them directly influence our further learning

(L.S. Skurnik, F. George, «Psychology for Everyman». Penguin Books, 1972, pp. 37 -41)

Exercises

I. Transcribe the following words and practise them for pronunciation:

partial, threat, anxiety, actually, external, accentuate, convergent, divergent

II. Read the following adjectives with the suffix -ous. Mind the pronunci­ation of the suffix, translate the words into Russian, wherever possi­ble name the words from which the given adjectives are derived:

nervous, various, obvious, curious, serious, famous, tremendous, spontaneous, conscious, monotonous, simultaneous, dangerous, desirous.

III. Translate the following sentences and word combinations into Rus­sian. (The exercise is to be done orally):

occasional reinforcement; occasional repetition; occasional presentation;

partial learning; partial remembering; constant error; a constant number; constant reinforcement; to make an effort to memorize a poem; to make an effort to achieve a goal; to make an effort to get a reward;

the transfer of meaning; the transfer from internal to external speech;

cause of one's anxiety; he fell ill because of constant anxiety; anxi­ety influenced his performance;

to excite interest; to excite desire; he was excited before the experi­ment; a cause of excitement;

desire to enter the University;desire to be free and independent; desire to get a reward; desire to achieve a goal; what do you desire? 1 desired to be left alone;

external (internal) factors; external (internal) influence; external (internal) development;

to acquire new skills; practical skills; to form new skills;

to distribute equipment; to distribute food among the animals; 1 can't account for this distribution; to affect the distribution of water;

similar objects; similar living conditions; similar distribution; similar skills; similar habits; similarity of behaviour; similarity of tastes;

children's attitude to parents; one's attitude to work; one's attitude to society; I have a negative attitude to him; they have a similar atti­tude to work;

the characteristic features of a natural language; features of one's temperament; features of one's character;

manifestation of interest; manifestation of anxiety; manifestation of desire; to manifest awareness of the environment; to manifest some change in behaviour.

Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the active vocabulary:

1. Даже помощь от случая к случаю лучше, чем ничего. 2. Время от времени причиной такого поведения может быть беспокой­ство испытуемых. 3. Лабораторные условия могут быть иногда причиной искажения полученных данных. 4. В этом случае даже частичное достижение цели было большим успехом. 5. Изуче­ние механизма памяти связано с вопросом о частичном и пол­ном забывании. 6. Шум был причиной частичного искажения в восприятии. 7. Необходимо определить постоянную ошибку. 8. Родители оказывали ему постоянную помощь и поддержку, и?. Он"хорошо учится без всякгтх усютчт. ГГ. Чгибъгсделать з гит опыт, не потребуется много усилий. 12. Врачи, учителя, психо­логи прилагают массу усилий, чтобы повысить эффективность школьного преподавания. 13. Испытуемые животные проявля­ли большой интерес к окружающим предметам. 14. Его матема­тические способности проявились в раннем возрасте. 15. Груп­па ученых изучала вопрос о проявлении возрастных различий. 16. В природе можно наблюдать много проявлений действия за­кона естественного отбора. 17. Велики достижения в области теории коммуникаций. 18. Чтобы достичь хороших результатов в учебе, надо потрудиться. 19. При втором предъявлении испы­туемый показал лучшие результаты. 20. По-моему, у Вас нет причиндля беспокойства. 21. Постоянное беспокойство быстро состарило ее. 22. Новая методика проведения измерений вызва­ла всеобщий интерес. 23. Больной находился в состоянии

непонятного возбуждения. 24. Вскоре возбуждение сменилось апатией. 25. Жажда знаний заставила Ломоносова покинуть родную деревню и отправиться в Москву. 26. У меня нет жела­ния испытать это ощущение еще раз. 27. Если испытываешь же­лание достичь определенной цели, исполнение лучше, чем ко­гда такого желания нет. 28. При определении причин заболевания следует учитывать как внутренние, так и внешние факторы. 29. Психолога интересует влияние внешнего мира на внутренний мир человека, его мысли и чувства. 30. Для опыта было отобрано шесть предметов, сходных по цвету и форме. 31. Я не замечаю никакого сходства между ними. 32. Вторая се­рия экспериментов дала результаты, сходные с результатами первой серии. 33. В университете многие студенты овладевают мастерством чтения лекций. 34. У него хорошее знание теории, но нет практических навыков. 35. Новые методы помогают ско­рейшей выработке у учащихся умений и навыков. 36. Работа была слишком сложной, пришлось распределить ее между не­сколькими студентами. 37. Общественность Англии протесто­вала против раннего распределения детей по разным типам школ в соответствии с результатами специальных тестов. 38. Как Вы относитесь к этому вопросу? 39. Отношение детей к учебе зависит от многих факторов. 40. В возрасте 13 лет отноше­ние мальчика к родителям, особенно отцу, очень изменилось. 41. У нее очень приятные черты лица. 42. Характерная его осо­бенность — стремление к достижению поставленной цели. 43. Матери пришлось перевести сына в другую школу. 44. Поче­му Вы переносите свое отрицательное отношение с отца на сына? 45. Положительный перенос — очень важен в процессе обучения.

V. Choose the right word from the box and insert it into one of the follow­ing sentences:

similarity, effort, anxiety, feature, achievement, external, skills

1. The mother in a state of high ... about her son's illness took him to a hospital. 2. Some child psychologists perceived a... in the early behav­iour of animals and the human infant. 3. A great deal of thought may be required in learning ... , but in the end the behaviour patterns become largely automatic. 4. ... were made to control the process. 5. Philosophic materialism interprets consciousness as a reflection of the ... world. 6. There is a strong association between ageing and many kinds of intellectual....

VI. Form Participle I, Active and Passive, of the following verbs: write, report, reinforce, recommend, influence

VII. Form Perfect Participle I, Active and Passive, of the following verbs: ask, reward, read, refer, make

VIII. In the following sentences find all the participles, define their forms and functions. Translate the sentences into Russian:

1. It was noted that even at the age of six the children were able to orga­nize their performance in a variety of perceptual and motor tests, directing their energies towards efficient performance, working away independently and experiencing delight when succeeded. 2. The least developed area of human gerontology concerns motivation and per­sonality. 3. The procedure recommended is to select the one best test to measure each factor. 4. The percentage of material retained varies according to the type of measurement of retention. 5. This approach is concerned with the effect of continuous performance on the effi­ciency in the performance being studied. 6. Often the behaviour being observed in the experimental situation is isolated and out of context and may differ from similar behaviour in an actual life situation. 7. Every individual coming to a psychological clinic or being seen and «treated» by a psychologist should have a careful physical examination by a doctor. 8. Five and ten years later we may repeat our measure­ments using the same tests.

iX. In the following sentences find the Absolute Participial Construction and translate the sentences into Russian:

1. Man being a very complex organism, many sciences are con­cerned with his investigation. 2. Experiments being performed under carefully controlled conditions, behaviour of experimental animals may not be characteristic of their behaviour outside the laboratory. 3. Scientists having been able to discover specialization of different nerve fibres, a great deal is to be learned about the nature of nerve «messages». 4. This was done for obtaining addi­tional data, the operations not being shown here. 5. Werner's results appear to demonstrate that even the black disk on a white ground can be made invisible, the whole black area being obliter­ated and the colour stimulation being nullified, if the contour is not given enough time to develop in perception. 6. Scientific mea­surement may either be direct, the response itself being mea­sured, or indirect, the measurement being of the stimulus used to obtain a specific response. 7. A given individual may have many per­sonalities, one of them being central and, perhaps, explaining the oth­ers. 8. Hoppe's experiments were characterized by a certain degree of informality, the conclusions being based on the subjects' spontaneous remarks concerning their reactions to the various situations.

X. Change the first three sentences of Ex. IX so as to use a clause in­stead of the Absolute Participial Construction. Follow the pattern:

The exams being over, we went to our University sports camp.= As soon as* the exams were over we went to our University sports camp.

introduce the clause with such conjuctions as since, as, though, because, etc.

XI. Define the functions of -ed forms in the following sentences. Trans­late the sentences into Russian:

1. The blind adult, for so long reliant on his other senses, will have acquired a highly complex tactile and auditory perceptual world which may interfere with his newly acquired visual world. 2. In the general law of retention, how does the percentage retained depend upon the time since practice ceased ? 3. Each trial was followed by a 2-minute rest interval. 4. The conditions which retard or accelerate the rate of learning, the factors which are necessary for its successful completion, the order in which certain parts of a task are mastered — these and other similar questions can be answered, at least in part, by the use of experimental methods already examined. 5. Such methods of research have advantages when applied to human thinking. 6. The environ­mental world, as perceived, consists in large part of objects or things. 7. These observations are analyzed statistically to give an objective pic­ture of the individual and his relationship to others in the situation observed. 8. A large variety of forms and patterns of maze have been employed in experimental studies of motor learning. 9. The animal is placed in a quiet room so that he will not be affected by uncontrolled or distracting stimuli. 10. The techniques employed have varied. 11. The papers received deal with a great variety of problems. 12. Theories also predict events not yet tested.

XII. Compare the meaning of any and its derivatives in statements and interrogative sentences:

1. Can anything be learned when there is no motivation at all? 2. Any­one who has tried to memorize a lengthy poem has been aware of the way in which items mastered momentarily can slip away. 3. Is there anyway of discovering differences between laboratory and extra-Iabo- ratory thinking? 4. In any theory of personality the dynamics of behav­iour is a topic of major concern. 5. Any discussion of personality begins with some definition of the term. 6. Theory testing is an important ele­ment in the growth and development of any science.

XIII. Make up fifteen questions based on the text.

XIV. Prepare a dialogue on the topic of complex learning. The following may serve you as a guideline:

— We acquire knowledge by means of learning, don't we?

— What is the basic principle of learning?

— That's right. What kinds of reinforcement do you know?

— Which of them is more effective, to your mind, and why do you think so?

— In my opinion, it's only a part of an answer to the question. We should also mention ... And what do you mean by latent learning?

— I quite agree with you that in case of latent learning the results are limited. There are many factors which influence the efficiency with which we master some new material...

— I think that proper distribution of the material to be learned is also very important.

— Of course. So, as a rule I prepare for exams... And what about you?

— We seem to know at least some laws of efficient learning. If we could apply and follow them I am sure our University achievements would be much better.

XV. Speak on the topic: Complex Learning and Language.

XVI. Read the following text, retell it and say if, in your opinion, there are age limits to efficient learning of a primary language and a foreign language. Give examples from scientific literature if you can.

In 1967 a book called "Biological Foundations of Language" was pub­lished by the Harvard neuropsychologist Eric Lenneberg.

Chapter 4 of the book presented what has since been called the criti­cal period hypothesis. It suggested that the brain is able to learn a pri­mary language during a certain early period, and not later on, and it

proposed physiological explanations of why this might be so. Lenneberg's innovation lay in those explanations; the idea itself has been around for a while.

Nikolas Tinbergen who was an ethologist had discovered that he could train baby ducks to follow him around if he trained them at a cer­tain period. That was ducks. In humans, Piaget did his lifelong study about what ages children develop certain capacities. The theory is as old as Saint Augustine,- who realized it in an intuitive way back in A.D. 600 when he said, "Give me a child until he is six, and I'll give you a Catholic for life". Augustine was wrong. It takes till twelve. According to Lenneberg, the child's ability to learn its mother tongue effectively ends at the onset of sexuality.

(After «Genie» by Russ Rymer. N.Y., 1993, pp. 84 -85)

XVII. Translate the following text from Russian into English.

Животное может приспосабливаться к условиям жизни, вы­рабатывая систему условных рефлексов. Однако животное не способно передавать другим животным свой опыт, оно не спо­собно усвоить опыт предшествующих поколений. Важнейшее отличие человека от всех других животных заключается в том, что его индивидуальный опыт неразрывно связан с общечелове­ческим опытом. Это оказывается возможным благодаря сущест­вованию языка.

Язык — есть система словесных знаков. Язык выступает как средство передачи, существования и усвоения общественно-ис- торического опыта. Другая важнейшая функция языка состоит в том, что язык выступает как средство коммуникации. В процес­се коммуникации мы получаем новые для нас знания об окру­жающей нас действительности.

LESSON VII

MEMORY AND THINKING

Grammar

(a) The Gerund

(b) -ing and its functions

(c) The construction of the type the longer the better

Active Vocabulary

1. capacity, n 1. способность 2. объем , емкость; storage ~ объем памяти

2. connotive, adj коииотативиый; ~ meaning коннотативное значе­ние

connotation, n дополнительный, побочный оттенок значения, коннотация

connote, v иметь дополнительное значение

3. efficiency, п 1. эффективность, действенность 2. продуктивность, производительность 3. умение

efficient, adj эффективный, действенный

4. event, п 1 .событие 2. случай

5. frequency, п частота frequent, я^/частый

6. generation, п поколение generate, v порождать

7. image, п образ

imagine, v воображать, представлять себе imagination, п воображение imagery, п представления, мысленные образы imaginary, воображаемый, нереальный

8. involve, v I. включать в себя; содержать 2. вовлекать, впутывать 3. to be involved (in) быть включенным; участвовать involvement, п участие, вовлеченность

9. item, п вопрос, пункт; задание (теста)

10. pattern, n 1. паттерн, образ жизни , манера поведения 2. струк­тура 3. тип, способ 4. рисунок, узор

11. recall, v вспоминать, припоминать, воспроизводить recall, п воспроизведение, воспоминание

12. recency, п новизна

recent, adj недавний, новый

13. remind, v (smb. of smth.) напоминать (кому-л. о чем-л.)

14. represent, v представлять; изображать

representation, п 1. предъявление; репрезентация 2. изображе­ние; образ 3. представительство

15. retention, п 1. сохранение в памяти 2. физиол. задержание, задержка

retain, v 1. сохранять 2. помнить 3. удерживать

16. retrieve, v воспроизводить, извлекать из памяти retrieval, п воспроизведение

17. scan, v сканировать

store, v накапливать, хранить (в памяти)

18. storage, п 1. хранение (информации) 2. запоминающее устройство

19. value, п 1. ценность 2. значение; число, величина value, v 1. ценить 2. оценивать, производить оценку valuable, adj ценный, важный

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MEMORY AND THINKING

Human memory and learning are intimately related since the devel­opment of an association between a stimulus and response requires some sort of retention. Some of our associations, such as conditioned reflexes, are not at the conscious, but at the spinal level of association, although possibly they are 'remembered' there also. For most of the behaviour which distinguishes humans from animals (that is thinking and communicating through language) memory is located in the centre of the nervous system on cortex of the brain. We can think of memory as analogous to some sort of filing cabinet system. Information received through the senses is stored and utilized as needed, within the limits of storage capacity and the personal efficiency for 'searching the files'. (Without this retention process there could be no learned behaviour). Our storage capacity seems to be an inflexible individual characteristic, but the efficiency with which the information is retrieved is a function of a number of influences. Three of these influences, which are general features in memory, are frequency, recency, and value.

Frequency refers, everything else being equal, to the tendency to remember those experiences which have happened most often. Experi­ences or events that occur infrequently are not remembered well. It is also clear that, everything else being equal, we remember the more recent events in contrast to those that occurred in earlier times.

Learning also influences our ability to recall our past experiences. When the learning takes place, how well is the material mastered? How frequently do the lessons occur, and what are the personal priorities we attach to the lessons? All these factors affect the extent to which we can' demonstrate our retention of information.

Thinking must, like memory, be inferred from public behaviour. Thinking is another so-called 'mental' activity, involving the manipula­tion of symbols, signs, concepts, or ideas, which are symbolically repre­sented. Thinking is a process which is closely bound up with language.

To continue with the filing analogy, thinking is the term used to describe the various ways in which the information in storage is retrieved, scanned, examined, combined, and rearranged. We do not actually exam­ine the objects (memories) on 'file', but we may sometimes refer to the verbal description of the remembered events. Memory, learning, thinking, and language are all intimately related processes. So far is this the case that a word may remind you of other words and conjure up images, whereas a perception may conjure up images and also remind you of a linguistic description.

Two types of thinking, i.e. convergent and divergent thinking, are pro­cesses of association between stimuli and responses which arc acceptable according to different criteria. We may also make associations among ideas or experiences. When we are faced with a problem that we wish to solve we usually resort to convergent thinking, depending on our memory to bring forth the best answer that can serve as a solution. If this effort is unrewarding we may resort to trial-and-error or perhaps use a hypothesis as a result of insight, i.e. we may be able to assemble our previous experi­ences in a new way so that we understand the relationships required to solve the task. Our thinking process like many of the actions we perform, is very likely to become habitual and standardized. Most people find it very difficult to change their pattern of thinking, especially if their methods have previously been rewarding.

Through language we understand and communicate the symbols and concepts that we learn. The words in our language are learned initially by association with the objects or events they represent (extension), but we also acquire meaning of words through their relationship to other words and symbols. They are usually clear-cut labels and have only one meaning. The second class of symbols are connotive symbols, and they mark the way we

intend to make people think about these things. Words like 'good', 'happy', 'worthwhile', are some of the connotive-type words used valuatively.

The essential link between thinking and language, we must repeat, comes about because we learn a great deal by description. We read about the experiences of others, of their verbal representations of other objects and ideas. We think by internal manipulation of language, and the very fact that we are able to associate a name successfully with an object is clear evi­dence that our memory stores both the name and a symbolic representa­tion of the thing.

Let us look at just one piece of experiment on linguistic behaviour. Our vocabulary is composed of tens of thousands of words, including a great number of adjectives. We can use adjectives to qualify objects with such words as 'good', 'clean', 'large' and so on. Research has shown that our basic connotive vocabulary can be reduced to the three broad types of adjectives that most people use to describe their environment. The funda­mental adjective types are:

Evaluation: i.e. good... bad Potency: i.e. strong... weak Activity: i.e. active... passive These three pairs of adjectives are the basic meanings that we seem to apply to many of the objects we perceive, learn, and think about. The whole field of relationship of symbols and language is the communica­tion process by which human knowledge is recorded and developed. Language makes it possible for each generation to learn for itself what other generations had learned earlier. Knowledge is cumulative, other­wise each generation would have to learn for itself, for example, all of the principles of science. Cognition is the mental process by which we learn, think, and remember, and we use language to describe and understand the world around us.

(L.S. Skurnik, F. George. «Psychology for Everyman». Penguin Books, 1972, pp. 46 -49)

Exercises

I. Transcribe the following words and practise them for pronunciation:

intimately, analogous, equal, conjure, label, spinal, efficiency, infer, criteria, habitual, connotive, valuatively.

II. Name adjectives from which the following nouns are formed:

awareness, newness, greenness, quickness, sleepiness, bigness, blind­ness, blackness, usefulness, seriousness, unexpectedness, darkness, nervousness, correctness

III. Form adjectives with the suffixes -ful and -less from the following nouns and translate them into Russian:

care, use, doubt, help, fear, need

IV. Translate the following sentences and word combinations into Rus­sian. (The exercise is to be done orally):

to retain information; to retain knowledge; to retain the exciting news; the mechanism of retention;

to store facts; to store data; the brain is the place where a great deal of information is stored; storage capacity;

to have good intellectual capacities; our memory has a great stor­age capacity;

efficiency in performance; efficiency in memorizing facts and figures;

recent events; a recent trial; a recent experiment; to value one 's views; to value one 's opinion; valuable facts; valuable data; valuable information; information value;

historical events; recent events; to remember better frequent and recent events;

to involve new data; to involve one's consciousness, to involve one's memory; to involve thinking;

the image of the world around us; the image of a concept; image memory; a visual image;

to study the pattern of one's behaviour; to influence one's pattern of thinking; to depend on the pattern of memorizing new data; the pattern of movement;

the younger generation; the older generation; several generations of experimental animals.

V. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the active vocabulary:

1. Мы удерживаем в памяти только часть получаемой инфор­мации. 2. Сохранение в памяти многочисленной информа­ции — чрезвычайно сложный процесс. 3. В его памяти хра­нится самая разнообразная информация. 4. В памяти хранят­ся наиболее важные сведения. 5. У разных людей различный объем памяти. 6. Как правило, у детей хорошая восприимчи­вость к учению. 7. Он — человек больших способностей. 8. Новые эффективные методы обучения нашли широкое применение в нашей школе. 9. Много квалифицированных преподавателей работает в пашем университете. 10. Лечение оказалось эффективным. 11. Следует проверить эффектив­ность этого метода 12. Это происходит чрезвычайно часто. 13. Частотность употребления этого слова в речи очень вы­сокая. 14. Интерес к исследованиям в области массовой коммуникации — сравнительно недавний. 15. С большим удовольствием я вспоминаю недавнюю встречу со старыми друзьями. 16. Новизна — одна из особенностей памяти. 17. Хотя знания студента были недостаточными, преподава­тель оценил усилия студента самостоятельно разобраться в изучаемом материале. 18. Без сомнения, ваш ценный опыт окажет нам большую помощь в решении этого вопроса. 19. Огромна ценность экспериментального метода для психо­лога. 20. В его жизни, казалось, не было никаких примечатель­ных событий. 21. XV111 Международный психологический конгресс в Москве был событием огромного значения. 22. Два события оказали решающее влияние на всю его жизнь. 23. Данная проблема включает несколько отдельных вопросов, которые следует рассмотреть отдельно один за дру­гим. 24. Многие внутренние органы вовлечены в этот про­цесс. 25. Психологи, биологи, физиологи, химики заняты изучением процесса старения. 26. Ощущение — суть субъек­тивный образ объективного мира. 27. Образная память быва­ет зрительной, осязательной и т.п. 28. Изучение модели пове­дения обезъяны дало интересные результаты. 29. Сейчас мно­го говорят о необходимости разработать модель будущего специалиста. 30. Между поколениями существует тесная связь 31. Новое поколение многое наследует от старого. 32. Опыт проводился на нескольких поколениях мышей.

VI. Choose the right word from the box and insert it into one of the follow­ing sentences:

to retain, to involve, pattern, frequency, conscious, consciousness,

capacity

*

1. The elementary form of ... amongst animals is sensory ...

2. Learning a skill may ... many errors. 3. For most people maximum intellectual... in the biological sense is somewhere between the ages of 15 and 25. 4. This behaviour in the main takes the form of the specific ... of activity in response to specific stimulation termed reflexes. 5. At the opposite pole is behaviour in which individual is clearly... of a def­inite end or goal towards the attainment of which his actions arc directed. 6. He ... these responses unchanged throughout life.

7. Attempts to make contact with other children increase in ... with age, although contacts are usually short-lived until three years and upwards.

'II. In the following sentences find the Gerund, define its forms and func­tors, translate the sentences into Russian:

1. Psychologists measure intelligence by observing a person's perfor­mance in a set of standard tests. 2. Measurements of perceptual and motor skills, or even personality, attitudes and motivation might give useful data for predicting age-changes. 3. We are all familiar with the experience of being urged or driven to behave in certain ways to achieve certain ends. 4. During the past 25 years psychologists have taken more seriously the possibility of constructing mathematical models for the description of mental phenomena. 5. Easier tasks, if they are of the right sort, stand a greater chance of being solved by insight. 6. The subject was first tested by being handed pencil and paper and told to make a written reproduction of what he had learned. 7. Changing the food used as a stimulus will produce divergent results in the same animals. 8. We cannot understand the nature of measure­ments without knowing about the properties of mathematics. 9. With­out being conditioned human beings soon learn that the dinner bell is a signal for dinner and will respond to it by going to the dining room. 10. Being punished can be preferable to being ignored. 11. The fact does not prevent our using this experimental technique.

/III. Translate the following sentences and analyze all the -ing forms in them (the Gerund, the Participle I, the Verbal Noun):

1. The subject will be tested individually by being given simple problems to solve. 2. The essential of this procedure is the placing of some sort of barrier between the subject and the goal he is trying to reach. 3. Learning occurs as a result of experience, but while this experience occurs, for­getting is also going on. 4. There are many approaches to the achieving of these results. 5> Here we shall discuss independent variables which are commonly recognized as playing a role in laboratory experiments on learning. 6. In humans there is evidence for the beginnings of form per­ception within the first weeks of life. 7. A number of experiments have shown that it is possible to control eating by stimulation or cutting off certain parts of the brain. 8. We have been developing the theory that the needs which Operate in the determination of the level of aspirations continue to exert their influence upon later performance. 9. They study the learning ability of animals by offering rewards such as food for cor­rect solution of problems. 10. Growing older means being able to utilize earlier experience. 11. We turn now to observing variations among indi­viduals in the same direction. 12. It is usually supposed that at birth the first action to appear is the reflex gasp for air, followed by crying. 13. In most psychological experiments on thinking, the methods employed are adaptations of procedures first used in studying other psychological activities. 14. For the beginner, choosing a problem is often one of the most difficult steps in designing an experiment. 15. Most sciences are busy answering the question Why?. 16. Knowing and understanding may play an important role in survival. 17. Without trying to determine the direction of the discussion we shall mention the problems touched upon in the papers presented. 18. We are far from having all the answers yet. 19. One way of doing it is to measure the degree of punishment which the animal accepts in satisfying his drive. 20. Pairing a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned one will eventually result in the condi­tioned stimulus becoming effective.

IX. Translate the following sentences paying special attention to the ital­icized expressions:

1. The higherthe level of scale, the more we can do with the numbers we obtain in measurement. 2. The greater the proportion of similar reac­tions, the nearer they are on the scale, and the smaller the proportion of similar reactions, the farther apart they are. 3. The greater the age dif­ference between the child subject and the experimenter, the more diffi­cult is for the experimenter to understand the child's feelings. 4. The less complex the subjects, the easier it is to carry out a scientifically valid experiment.

X. Answer the following questions based on the text:

1. What is human memory closely connected with?

2. What is human memory based on?

3. Where is memory located?

4. What is the quantity of information stored in our memory limited by?

5. Is storage capacity the same for every individual?

6. What are general features in memory?

7. What is meant by the term 'frequency'?

8. What do we remember better, the more recent events or the events that occurred earlier?

9. What does the term 'value' refer to?

10. What is thinking?

11. What is thinking closely bound up with?

12. How do we understand and communicate the symbols and concepts that we learn?

13. Why is language so important for human beings?

XI. Prepare a dialogue between two students, one of whom majors in psychology, while the other majors in history. The following may serve you as a guideline for your dialogue:

— Since you major in psychology, I hope you'll be able to help me. The thing is, I must remember numerous facts and figures and I find it too difficult. I'm afraid there is something wrong with my memory. Besides, the trouble is that though I can memorize learning material fairly quickly, I forget it as quickly. Why so?

— I see. So there is long-term and short-term memory. What should be done to retain the material studied and make a more permanent gain in learning?

— How much material can be remembered and stored in our mem­ory? Are there any limits to our storage capacity?

— I've noticed that I remember material better if I feel emotionally interested in it.

— I see. But I still don't understand why some people remember things better than others. Can I improve my memory?

— Thanks a lot for the interesting information. You must be a very good student.

XII. Read the following text about Herman Ebbinghaus and be ready to speak about his contribution to psychology:

Ebbinghaus (1850 —1909), a contemporary and countryman of Weber and Fechner, began the scientific study of memory processes. Prior to Ebbinghaus' work, many philosophers and psychologists had said that such a complicated mental process as memory could never be studied empirically. As a mental event, memory could not be brought into the lab­oratory for study. Fortunately, Ebbinghaus did not pay much attention to these earlier attitudes. He decided to learn how he himself learned and how he retained what he learned, and in line with this aim he developed the memory drum and the nonsense syllable (qux, kun, mes). The memory drum is a device that presents nonsense syllables to a subject one at a time. Ebbinghaus made up a list of nonsense syllables and presented them to himself in a memory drum. He counted the number of times that he had to see and pronounce the syllables in order to learn them. Then he left the

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task for varying periods of time and later relearned the syllables. Naturally, he found it easier to learn the list the second time, and he used the percent­age "saved" (the second time over the first as his retention measure.

Ebbinghaus believed, as did Weber and Fechner, that he was getting at the relationship between physical events and mental events. But again we can see that Ebbinghaus' mental event was purely behaviour. It was the number of nonsense syllables that he could recite after a period of time.

Ebbinghaus' technique and procedures remain important in learning today, and he is historically important because he went into the laboratory to study a phenomenon that had hitherto been considered mental.

XIII. Speak on the following topics:

1. Memory and its general features

2. Experiments on memory you know of

3. Thinking, types of thinking

4. Language and thinking, language as a means of communication

XIV. Translate the following text:

Запоминание, сохранение и воспроизведение индивидуумом его опыта называется памятью.

В памяти различают такие основные процессы: запоминание, сохранение, воспроизведение и забывание. Эти процессы форми­руются в деятельности и определяются ею.

Изучение механизмов памяти — одна из важных проблем психологии.

Память включена во все многообразие жизни и деятельности че­ловека. Она имеет много форм. Деление памяти на виды обусловле­но прежде всего особенностями самой деятельности, в которой осу­ществляются процессы запоминания и воспроизведения. При этом отдельные виды памяти выделяются в соответствии с тремя основ­ными критериями:

1. по характеру психической активности память делят на двига­тельную,эмоциональную, образную и словесно-логическую;

2. по характеру целей деятельности — произвольную и непро­извольную;

3. по продолжительности закрепления и сохранения материала — на кратковременную, долговременную и оперативную.

LESSON VIII