2016. vol. 13. No. 1

Access to articles related to a Special Theme of the Issue is restricted in accordance with the deci- sion of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023. 

Access to articles related to a Special Theme of the Issue is restricted in accordance with the deci- sion of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023. 

Access to articles related to a Special Theme of the Issue is restricted in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023. 

The activities of the International Public LGBT Movement and its structural subdivisions are prohibited in the Russian Federation (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023). 

Access to articles related to a Special Theme of the Issue is restricted in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023. 

The activities of the International Public LGBT Movement and its structural subdivisions are prohibited in the Russian Federation (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023). 

Access to articles related to a Special Theme of the Issue is restricted in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023. 

The activities of the International Public LGBT Movement and its structural subdivisions are prohibited in the Russian Federation (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 30.11.2023). 

The current study was intended to present a current version of the meta-individual world (MIW) theory developed by Dorfman. Its core is the dual-system model. According to it, two systems are specified, namely, System 1 and System 2. One of the systems (System 1) unifies the personality and its closer social setting. Within this system, the personality extends to its closer social setting, making changes in it. Thus, the personality occupies the primary position and the closer social setting occupies the secondary position. This system carries a connection of the closer social setting to the personality. The other system (System 2) also connects the closer social setting to the personality, but in the opposite direction. Within this system, the closer social setting extends to the personality, making changes in it. Here, the closer social setting occupies the primary position and the personality occupies the secondary position. The two systems are distinct, operate in their own right and are relatively independent from one another, although they hold a common personal and social ground. Respectively, two kinds of phenomena are specified, namely, within each system and those under influence of the both systems. Thus, the latter brings dual qualities. In addition, a structuralist view is employed; it is shown on the lines of multidimensionality, namely, agency,possession, perspective-taking, and relatedness.

Knowledge structuring is one of the poorly-studied cognitive processes that significantly affect the learning activity processes as well as professional knowledge sharing communications. The paper describes the main results of the study aimed at investigation of the impact of the individual characteristics of cognitive style in the process of information structuring during learning. The stress is put on the study of the cognitive style parameters, which significantly affect the conceptual design features of hierarchical models (the so-called ontologies) that are important for learning and understanding of the material. The main described results are focused on empirical testing of hypotheses about the impact of the individual characteristics of cognitive style (such as field dependence / field independence, category narrowness / width, impulsiveness / reflexivity) on the individual and collective ontology design features. Some interesting results of the group ontology design work study (in pairs and threesomes) are discussed. They present the relationship between the individual ideas of group members about the domain and the resulting common structure.  The sample consists of the Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University students. The students were tested on the specifics of their individual cognitive styles and after they were asked to create ontologies of the “Computer Science” domain personally and collectively. The obtained results allow to propose some practical recommendations for formation of the efficient groups for collective intellectual work, e.g. data base design, knowledge representation models, business-models and other conceptual structures.

Existing research has shown modality-specific differences in short-term memory performance. Almost all previous studies have manipulated the input information without considering the way it will be used at output. In the current study, participants memorized spatially ordered arrays of letter-like shapes simultaneously shown on a screen, and recalled the stimuli by (i) drawing them on a sheet of paper, (ii) typing them on a keyboard according to a specified item-to-key map, and (iii) pronouncing them aloud using an item-to-letter map suggested by the letter-like items’ appearance. It was assumed that manipulating the output modality using the fixed stimuli set would lead to favoring different encoding strategies and subsequently result in different error patterns. Although visual input seems to be the main determinant of overall error rates in the drawing, typing and pronouncing tasks, less prominent but robust output-related differences between these tasks were also found. The pen and paper copying task showed a significant excess of substitutions called “upside down errors” and incorrect order responses. The typing task showed a significant excess of omissions. The pronouncing task showed a significant excess of mirror errors and the lowest rate of 90-degree rotations. The differences among patterns of errors in the different tasks are consistent with the hypothesized impact of the output modality on the way that visual information is stored in working memory.

The study of parent-child representations across cultures is important in order to obtain a proper understanding of the attributes, size and positioning of such figures as indicators of different interaction patterns across cultures. A thorough base of research evidence for the interpretation of children’s drawings may facilitate work in multicultural educational settings and enhance our understanding of cultural diversity in schools. Italy provides an ideal context for the study of parent-child representations, as the country has witnessed increasing cultural diversity in recent years with the immigration of various ethnic groups. This study examined the extent to which this context influences children’s representations in domains of Cohesion (interpersonal bonding), Similarity (affinity) and Value (spatial relevance) among parent-child figures because these domains inform important representational processes of interpersonal bonding with parents across specific cultures. The Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (PAIR) was used to codify drawings of 326 children with Albanian (n = 59), Serbian (n = 85) and Italian (n = 182) backgrounds. The results showed that in drawings made by Albanian and Serbian children parental figures were drawn similar to and close to the child figure representing their less independent reciprocal stance. The parental figures drawn by Italian children appear bigger and farther apart. Important implications may be derived from the results in facilitating work in multicultural educational settings, by enhancing knowledge regarding cultural diversity in schools.